
HHH 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



Q00104nA3T 






• <<r^ v 



"U-0* 















^ 



w 



















• • s \ > 

















mfS A, 









3 & Ma***, £* 



y?'*J%:7% /U-£xL i~~/r£ t 



THE 



HISTORY 



OF 



THE VOLUNTEERS 



178 2 



BY THOMAS MAC NEVIN, Esq, 

BARRISTER AT LAW 

'• When Gratlan rose, none dare oppose 
The claim he made lor freedom ; 
They knew our swords, to back his words, 
Were ready, did he need them." 

Davis — (Spirit of the NationJ 




NEW YORK: 

R. MARTIN & CO., 26 JOHN-STREET. 

MDCCCXLV. 



THE 



HISTORY 



or 



THE VOLUNTEERS 



or 



178 2 



BY THOMAS MAC NEVIN, Esq., 



BARRISTER AT LAW. 



f 3 



'When Grattan rose, none dare op 

The claim he made for freedom"; 
They knew our swords, to back his wor 

Were ready, did he need them." 

Davis— (.Spirit of ike Nation.) 




NEW YORK: 

R. MARTIN & CO., 26 JOHN- STREET. 

MDCCCXLV. 

7 






TO 



WILLIAM SMITH O'BRIEN, Esq., M. P. 

MY DEAR SIR— 

I beg to inscribe the following work with your 
name. 

I know of few living men more fit than you to have 
played an honourable part in the great Revolution of 
which this book treats, or to direct the struggles of the 
present generation to revive its glory and to re-acquire 
its benefits. 

With these feelings, and with others of sincere friend- 
ship, I dedicate the following pages to you, and beg to 
subscribe myself 

Your humble Servant, 

THOMAS MAC NEVIN. 

26 Summer-kill 



INTRODUCTION 



EARLY IRISH PARLIAMENTS. 

For all purposes but one, any details of the early Irish Parliaments 
would be unnecessary in this work. But it is thought advisable to 
place some facts, relative to these bodies, before the reader, for the 
purpose of his better understanding the struggle in which the Volun- 
teers were engaged, and the institution they succeeded in restoring. 

We must not expect to find in the first parliaments held in Ireland, 
much of the form or spirit of modern legislative assemblies. The 
growth of these institutions has been slow ; and the perfection of mod- 
ern times, or any admixture of the democratic element, would be 
sought for in vain in the rude Baronial assemblies of ancient Ireland. 

The parliaments of our early history in connexion with Britain, 
were assemblies in which the Irish natives had no participation of any 
kind. Those by whose writ or authority they were summoned, did 
not even assume that they had in view the interests of the people 
whose ancient inheritance they came to usurp ; and the statutes and 
ordinances which, from time to time, were passed in these parliaments, 
are sufficiently indicative of the spirit of hostility with which the Irish 
people were regarded. 

If we consider the question merely in an antiquarian point of view, 
we can have no difficulty in determining that the origin of parliaments 
in Ireland, if not contemporaneous with the English invasion, is still 
of very remote antiquity : — but that the institution in its benefits, or in 
its protection, was not extended to the mass of the people until the 
power of England was recognised over the whole island, is a matter 
of equal certainty. Looking at the question politically, the Irish Par- 
liament becomes a matter of very inconsiderable import in the history 
of the people of Ireland. It was an assembly summoned usually to 
vote supplies to the king, for the marriage of his daughters or the ad- 
vancement of his sons, to carry on his wars — often against the Irish 
enemy — or to hear and decide certain " pleas of parliament" which 
came within its ill-defined jurisdiction. The entries on the rolls pre- 
served in the Record Offices, are almost all to this effect. 

Some writers on this subject have insisted that Henry the Second 
summoned a parliament in this country. In the learned work of Mr. 
Lynch on the Feudal Baronies of Ireland, the author relies upon the 
authority of many statutes passed in Ireland when Parliaments were 
without doubt held here, as proving by reference contained in them 
to the existence of such bodies from the time in which memory runneth 
1* 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

not, and from the acquirement of the said land, the contemporaneous 
existence of legislative assemblies with the first English settlement. 
But there were no parliamentary rolls or journals until a much later 
period, and the only document, of the date of Henry the Second's 
reign, upon which Mr. Lynch relies, is the statute Henry Fitz-Em- 
press (another name for that monarch) passed for the election of a 
chief governor when that officer should vacate his office ; and by this 
statute or ordinance (for it may be called by either designation) it was 
provided that the chancellor and other officers should, with the consent 
of the nobles of the land, have power to elect a governor. But this 
act was more probably passed in a Curia Regis or Common Council, 
similar to that held at Lismore, in 1172, by Henry the Second ; in- 
deed the author afterwards calls such assemblies " parliaments or 
public councils."* 

During Henry's reign, he very probably more than once held coun- 
cils of this kind, to which his nobles and prelates were summoned to 
consult on the affairs of the realm ; but our distinguished historian f 
with great justice remarks, that, to apply the term parliament to such 
assemblies is, if not an anachronism in language, at least a use of the 
term calculated to mislead, inasmuch as that form of legislative coun- 
cil to which we give at present that name, did not develope itself, 
however long its rudiments may have been in existence, for more than 
a hundred years afterwards. Mr. Lynch, on the other hand, relies 
upon the authority of the statute of Fitz-Empress, which was re-en- 
acted in a parliament assembled in the second year of Richard the 
Third, and the learned author refers to the works of Hovenden, Gi- 
raldus Cambrensis, Matthew Paris, and Brompton, for accounts of the 
parliamentary transactions in the reign of Henry the Second. But 
the statements of these writers must be taken in connexion with the 
observations already made. They treated of the acts of bodies, to 
which the term parliament, in our sense of the word, cannot possibly 
apply ; wanting, as they undoubtedly did, all the component ingredients 
which make up the modern idea — wanting representation, election by 
votes, and all those forms by which the selection of representatives and 
their proceedings were guided and controlled at a later period. 

In his work on the constitution, Mr. Hallam recapitulates the extent 
to which British laws and usages were introduced into Ireland, dur- 
ing the reign of Henry and his successors. Limiting the classes, to 
which the British constitution was in anywise imparted, to the English 
colony, and to the Ostmen who inhabited the maritime towns, and 
observing that the Irish chieftains never thought of renouncing their 
authority or the customs of their forefathers ; he says, that Henry 
gave charters of privilege to the chief towns, began a division into 
counties, appointed sheriffs and judges of assize to administer justice, 
erected supreme courts at Dublin, " and perhaps assembled parlia- 
ments, "t He does not give any reason for the supposition. 

* Lynch's Feudal Baronies of Ireland, p. 38. t Moore's History, vol. 2. p. 258. 

"tHallam's Constitutional Histoiy, vol. 3. p. 466. 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

In the reign of John, there are several instances of public coun- 
cils being held ; but in all cases the writs are directed to the barons, 
archbishops, bishops, and to certain tenants of the King. In the 
third year of this monarch, writs were issued to the barons of Meath, 
requiring of them " to give faith to what Meiler Fitzhenry, his 
justiciary or chief governor, should say to them." Another instance 
occurred in the fifth year of his reign, in which the writs were direct- 
ed to the archbishops, bishops, &c, and to the justices, sheriffs, 
knights, citizens, merchants, burgesses, and freeholders (that is to say, 
tenants of free tenure under the King ;) and they are asked to give 
him an aid similar to one he had already received in England. John 
had bound himself by Magna Charta to summon to such general 
assemblies the greater barons by special writs, and the lesser barons 
by writs directed to the sheriff. There are other instances in the 
same period of similar councils thus summoned, and for one specific 
purpose — to grant an aid or to take council on the state of the country 
— and we may observe the rudiments of the principles which after- 
wards controlled the Parliaments of Ireland, slowly unfolding them- 
selves in these early councils. The constitution of these countries is 
not a system devised and propounded at any one given period, but is 
the cumulative result of the additions made, from time to time, of 
something new and required to existing forms, the slowly matured fruit 
of successive experiments. And the mistake which many writers 
have made consists in this, that they discuss these early and unshaped 
institutions by a standard derived altogether from their own experience 
of a comparatively perfect system. Hence those early Baronial 
Councils, called together by the exigencies of the monarch, and want- 
ing all the spirit and characteristics of a parliament, are treated as 
parliaments in many of our books of historical and constitutional 
learning. 

Several writs issued during the reign of Henry the Third, to his 
barons, bishops, and knights, calling them together for the purpose of 
giving him assistance towards marrying his son and daughter, and 
to enable him to execute a sworn voyage to the Holy Land, and 
the like.* The laws and institutions of England were, by the exten- 
sion of the Great Charter in the reign of Henry the Third, conceded 
to Ireland, with a singular anomaly of exclusion — the people were 
to take no benefit by the grant. The new adventurers lived pe 
culiarly for the day : they did not appear to look beyond present en- 
joyment, and the opportunity which was afforded to them of creating 
an empire amongst a willing people, of laying the foundations deep 
and wide of a great system of civilization upon the basis of conquest 
and of community of laws, institutions, and customs, was thrown away 
on the pluudering chivalry of the Anglo-Normans. We may conclude 
that the natives of Ireland were but little interested in the parliamen- 
tary details of this reign. Lynch, however, gives several entries on 
the rolls of parliamentary grants to the monarch ; and there is no 

* In Rhymer's Ftedera, will be found a writ to convene an Irish Parliament in this reign, 
A. D. 1253. See Grattan's Life by his Son, 1st vol. p. 10. 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

doubt that several councils were assembled for the usual purposes, at 
Dublin and Kilkenny. 

The reign of Edward the First was memorable in the English 
annals, for it was during its continuance that the parliamentary power 
was moulded into its present shape. The authority of parliament 
previous to that period was supposed to reside in the baronage, which 
constituted the great councils of the nation. The only duty of the 
Commons was to grant money ; and their privileges did not extend 
further than the presentation of petitions.* It is difficult to believe 
that the system was more amply developed in Ireland. The country 
was less able to supply materials for a third estate, and all the pre- 
vious parliaments were most probably little better than great councils 
composed of barons, prelates, and their retainers. Yet a very import- 
ant assemblage was held in this reign — important in the indications 
it gives of the state of the country and the relations which existed be- 
tween the English and the native Irish, and also important for some 
of the measures it adopted. It ordained a new division of the kingdom 
into counties ; that absentees should assign a portion of the profits of 
their Irish lands to maintain a military force ; that, in consequence of 
the incursions of the natives on the marches or borders of the English 
settlement, the lords marchers who should neglect the maintenance of 
their wards, should forfeit their lands ; that no lord should wage war 
without license of the chief governor or special mandate of the monarch; 
and that no person of any degree should harbour more followers than 
he could maintain. f 

Perhaps the most important piece of legislation which remains to 
be notice], before we reach that period of our parliamentary history 
with which we are chiefly interested, is the Statute of Kilkenny, pass- 
ed during the viceroyalty of the Duke of Clarence and the reign of 
Henry the Third ; because, whatever skill or learning may be expended 
in denning the powers and exaggerating the antiquity of legislative 
institutions in Ireland, it proves that for two centuries after the 
invasion, the people were without the benefit of English laws, and had 
no participation whatever in their enactment or administration. The 
Statute of Kilkenny was curiously happy in its tendency to effect that 

* The first admission of the Commons to the English legislature comprised merely the 
king"s tenants in capite. In the charter of John, the words are " omnes illos qui de nobis 
tenent in capite." In the charter of Henry the Third it is stated that for the concessions 
therein contained, the " arckiepiscopi, episcopi, abbates priores, comites, barones milites, li- 
berc tcnentes et omnes dc regno nostro," gave him a fifteenth. This was an additional ele- 
ment — free-holders were summoned to the councils or parliaments. In the reign of 
Edward the First, the confirmatio cartarum, 25 Edward I., c. 5, the king's grants " to the 
archbishops, &c, as also to the earls, <fcc, and all the commonalty of the land not to take 
aids, tasks, or prizes, due and accustomed ; and by the statutum de tallagio in the 26 Ed- 
ward I., no tallage or aid is to be imposed without the will and assent of the whole, arch- 
bishops, &c, earls, barons, and knights, burgesses, and other free commons of our realm." 
These parliaments were composed of 169 members ; 37 shires returned two members 
each, and 132 boroughs returned a member each. The writs of summons of this reign 
direct the sheriff to return two knights for each shire, and for each borough two bur- 
gesses: the former were summoned for themselves and the commonalty of their coun- 
ties — the latter were summoned for themselves and the commonalty of cities and bor- 
oughs, divisim ab ipsis. This appears the first material step towards modern classification. 

f Moore's History, vol. 3, p. 41. 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

perpetual separation and enmity between the English and the Irish, 
which Sir John Davis asserts, was a favourite object with the govern- 
ments of Ireland. It was principally directed against those who were 
called " degenerate English ;" in other words, those who had adopted 
the manners and fashions of the people they dewlt amongst; but it 
was also filled with severe legislation against the native Irish. It 
destroyed the possibility of future union between the races in their 
social and political relations, prohibiting intermarriage with the Irish 
or any of those ties of gossipred,* which, dearer in their adoption than 
any natural link, were fondly cherished by the native people of Ireland ; 
making penal the adoption of an Irish name, the use of an Irish dress, 
language, or customs ; declaring it to be treason to submit to the 
Brehon law ; forbidding the English to permit the natives to pasture 
on their lands, or to admit their news-tellers, rhymers, or minstrels 
to abide with them. 

One can scarcely help fancying, that it required considerable art and 
determination to keep those two races distinct. If we can judge by 
the laws what were the inclinations of the people, they appear to have 
been anxious to mingle in all relations, and to make common cause 
against the oppressions of deputed tyranny and the wrongs inflicted 
directly by the English government. A policy, perfectly similar to 
that which took its place, when differences of religion afforded a new 
medium of division, was adopted by the party interested in the per- 
petuation of discord and contention in Ireland, and its effects have been 
in both instances the same — the ruin of the country and the sacrifice 
of her freedom. 

From time to time, Parliaments of a similar nature to the Parlia- 
ment of Kilkenny, and abundant in similar legislation, were held in 
different parts of Ireland — their uniform object being to repress Eng- 
lish degeneracy, and to organize oppression against the ancient inhab- 
itants of the country. The facts connected with these assemblies 
belong to the general history of Ireland — they present no peculiar 
feature which bears upon the subject of this book. 

Stringent, however, as their legislation undoubtedly was, and con- 
tinuous as were the military efforts to reduce the country, neither 
parliaments nor arms made much impression. The Pale was grad- 
ually narrowing around the English power — a power which was un- 
able to force submission, or to compensate usurpation by protection. 
In the reign of Henry the Seventh, the foreign rule of Ireland ex- 
tended only to four counties — Dublin, Louth, Kildare, and Meath. 

But the accession of the Tudors was the true commencement of 
Irish subjection. The English colonists, in the wars of York and 
Lancaster, had attached themselves to the fortunes of the White 
Rose, and their parliaments of the Pale had recognised and enforced 
the contemptible pretensions of Simnel and Warbeck. The mockery 

* Another word for fostering. (See Moore, p. 108.) "Fostering hath always been a 
stronger alliance than blood ; and the foster-children do love and are beloved of these fos- 
ter-fathers, and their sept, more than of their own natural parents and kindred, and do 
participate of their means more frankly, and do adhere unto them in all fortunes with 
more affection and constancy." 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

of a coronation io Christ church, which signalized the pretensions of 
Simnel, was followed by the invasion of England with a few thousand 
German adventurers and a crowd of the Anglo-Irish of the Pale. 
The result, after great but unavailing valour on their part, was the 
destruction of the invaders and the translation of Simnel to the 
kitchen of the King. The great lords of the Pale, who, headed by 
Fitzgerald, the Earl of Kildare, had taken part in the rebellion, lay 
prostrate at the mercy of Henry, and it is a reflection upon his policy, 
that he did not crush them when so fully in his power. They stood 
between the English sovereigns and the Irish people : many of them 
adopted Irish habits and formed Irish connexions, but they preserved 
enough of the pride of English birth, and the feeling of conquerors, 
to prompt them to retain in their hands all the benefits of the laws 
and institutions of England. It was the aristocratic party of the 
Pale who opposed the presumed intentions of several of the English 
monarchs to extend the protection of English laws to the Irish na- 
tives ; and Henry, on the failure of Simnel's rash rebellion, was in 
the position to adopt in Ireland the policy he so successfully employed 
at home, where, in the course of his succcessful and sagacious career, 
he destroyed the powerful class of nobility, which shared amongst 
its members the powers, and emulated the splendour of the monarchy. 
However, he did not adopt his own precedent. He permitted the 
Earl of Kildare, rebellious even in the chair of viceroyalty, to retain 
his office, and, with a few exceptions, extended his pardon to all the 
parties who were implicated in the rebellion. But his lenity was re- 
paid by a repetition of the farce of an escaped prince. Under similar 
auspices to those which ended in the ludicrous failure of Simnel, 
Perkin Warbeck presented himself to the rebellious spirits of the 
Pale, as Richard, Duke of York, the second son of Edward the 
Fourth ; and he, it was said, had escaped the murderous hand of the 
assassin, when his elder brother was killed in the Tower. The design 
of setting up this Pretender, which was warmly adopted by the 
Anglo-Irish of the Pale, soon became known to Henry. His mea- 
sures grew more consonant to his general character; he dismissed 
the Earl of Kildare from power, and after Warbeck had landed in 
Ireland, he adopted the first step which had ever been taken of real 
importance, " to curb the spirit of provincial despotism, which the 
English government itself let loose and fostered." * 

The Parliament of the Pale had been always in the hands of the 
great lords, the ready instrument of perpetuating and strengthening 
their dominion, and oppressing the natives of Ireland. It was the 
parliament of four counties, the abject instrument of dispensing the 
favours of power according to the pleasure of the predominant family 
— Butler or Fitzgerald — and the coercive and cruel medium by which 
the Irish people were harassed and oppressed. But if it were the 
instrument of grievous wrong to the body of the nation, it was also 
quick to assist the great lords in every scheme of rebellion, to which 
their ambition or turbulence gave birth. It was a tyrant and a rebel. 

* Moore's History, vol. 3, p. 217. 



INTRODUCTION, 11 

And it was to destroy its disturbing activity, that Henry determined 
to surround it with restrictions, and to reduce it from being the active 
instrument of mischief, into a mere court of registry to record the 
edicts of the English government, or its Irish deputies. 

The agent for effecting this purpose was well chosen. Sir Edward 
Poynings was sent to Ireland with a small military force, and a crowd 
of the most eminent English lawyers. He was a resolute and severe 
man. The restrictions on the parliaments of the Pale formed a part of a 
great and well considered scheme of national reduction. The duties 
of Poynings, who was appointed Lord Deputy, were to destroy the 
power of the great lords, to introduce English habits and English 
laws amongst the inhabitants within the English borders, to put an 
end to the local quarrels which distracted the district nominally ac- 
knowledging the power of England, to substitute an equitable system 
of taxation for the extortions practised by the retainers of the Barons, 
and having effected the preliminary settlement of the Pale to proceed 
to the reduction of the native inhabitants. The latter portion of his 
appointed duty was reserved for sterner and bloodier hands. But he 
did not leave unfulfilled the previous and necessary mission of extin- 
guishing the power of the Lords and the Parliament. 

In the month of November, 1494, the Parliament of Drogheda 
was held. 

It is celebrated above all other parliaments of times preceding its 
session or following it, for legislation which controlled the constitu- 
tional powers of Irish parliaments, up to the period of which this 
book treats. For though bold and virtuous opposition was given, 
from time to time, to the usurpation of England, it was not until the 
Declaration of Legislative Independence in 1782, that the Parliament 
of Ireland was perfectly emancipated from the restrictions which the 
legislation of Drogheda imposed, and which was subsequently either 
repeated or explained by the acts of Philip and Mary, and the 6th 
George the First. 

The legislation of the Parliament of Drogheda was of a very bene- 
ficial nature, as far as the Pale was concerned. One of its first acts 
was the abolition of the practices of coign and livery, and the pream- 
ble to the act is so illustrative of that district, that it is here presented 
to the reader : — 

"At the request and supplication of the commons of this land of 
Ireland, that where of long time there hath been used and exacted by 
the lords and gentlemen of this land many and divers damnable cus- 
toms and usages, called coign and livery, and pay, that is horse meat 
and man's meat ; besides many murders, robberies, rapes, and other 
manifold extortions and oppressions, by the said horsemen and foot- 
men, daily and nightly committed and done, which being the princi- 
pal causes of the desolation and destruction of the said land, hath 
brought the same into ruin and decay, so as the most part of the Eng- 
lish freeholders and tenants of this land be departed out thereof, some 
into the realm of England, and other some into other strange lands; 
whereupon the aforesaid lords and gentlemen of this said land have 
intruded into the said freeholders' and tenants' inheritance, and the 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

same keep and occupy as their own, and setten under them to the 
king's Irish enemies, to the diminishing of holy Church's rites, the 
disherison of the king and his obedient subjects, and the utter ruin 
and desolation of the land." 

The preamble of another act of this session, is fully explanatory 
of the relations existing between the English settlers and the Irish 
natives, and indicative of the action of what were called Irish Parlia- 
ments on the people of the country. It recites: — 

" As the marches of four shires lie open, and not fensible in fast- 
ness of ditches and castles, by which Irishmen do great hurt in prey- 
ing the same, it is enacted, that every inhabitant, earth-tiller, and oc- 
cupier in said marches, i. e., in the county of Dublin, from the water 
of Annaliffey to the mountain of Kildare, from the water of AnnalifFey 
to Trim, and soforth to Meath and Uriel, as said marches are made 
and limited by an act of parliament, held by William, Bishop of 
Meath, do buiid and make a double ditch of six feet high above ground 
at one side or part which meareth next unto Irishmen, betwixt this 
and next Lammas, the said ditches to be kept up and repaired as 
long as they shall occupy said land, under pain of forty shillings, the 
lord of said lands to allow the old rent of said lands to the builder for 
one year, under said penalty. The Archbishop of Dublin, and the 
Sheriff of the county of Dublin, the Bishop and Sheriff of Kildare, 
the Bishop and Sheriff of Meath, the Primate of Armagh, and the 
Sheriff of Uriel (county Louth), to be commissioners within their 
respective shires, with full power to call the inhabitants of said four 
shires to make ditches in the waste or fasagh lands without the said 
marches." To fence out the Irishmen was a great step of practical 
civilization in those good old times ; and even to the present day, but 
in a different fashion, it is considered excellent policy. 

But the statute with which we have peculiarly to do, in a history 
of the Volunteers of Ireland, is that which defines and limits the 
power of Irish Parliaments, and the doctrines of which — when these 
bodies became to some degree representative of the people of Ire- 
land — continued to retain them within the restrictive limits which 
were destroyed by the virtue and valour of the National Army of '82. 
The law of Poynings enacted, that " all acts made as well by his 
majesty as by his royal progenitors late kings of England, concerning 
the common and public weal of the same, were accepted and con- 
firmed to be used in Ireland according to the tenor and effect there- 
of." And by another act of the same legislation, it was provided 
that " no parliament should be held in Ireland until the causes and 
considerations for holding it were first certified by the deputy and 
council to the king, with the scope and intention of the acts proposed 
to be passed. The clause is as follows : — 

" Item, at the request of the commons of the land of Ireland, be 
it ordained, enacted, and established, that at the next parliamSnt that 
there shall be holden by the king's commandment and license, where- 
in amongst other the king's grace entendeth to have a general re- 
sumption of his whole revenues, sith the last day of the reign of King 
Edward the Second, no parliament be holden hereafter in the said 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

land, but at such season as the king's lieutenant and council there first 
do certify the king under the great seal of that land, the causes and 
considerations and all such acts as to them seemeth should pass in the 
same parliament, and such causes, considerations, and acts, affirmed 
by the king and his council, to be good and expedient for that land, 
and his license thereupon, as well in affirmation of the said causes 
and acts, as to summon the said parliament under his great seal of 
England had and obtained : that done, a parliament to be had and 
holden after the form and effect afore rehearsed : and if any parlia- 
ment be holden in that land hereafter, contrary to the form and pro- 
vision aforesaid, it be deemed void and of none effect in law." 

Hallam considers that the operation of the first of these acts effect- 
ed a marked change in Irish jurisprudence, all statutes made previous 
to the 18th year of Henry VII, being thereby received as Irish law, 
whilst none of later date were to have any operation unless specially 
adopted by the Irish Parliament.* But whatever was its effect, there 
can be no doubt either of the intention or of the results of the last 
of these statutes, which, in this country, is peculiarly known as 
Poynings' Law. " Whatever might be its motives," observes the 
same distinguished writer, " it proved in course of time the great 
means of preserving the subordination of an island, which, from the 
similarity of constitution, and the high spirit of its inhabitants, was 
constantly panting for an independence which her more powerful 
neighbour neither desired nor dared to concede. "f These laws, origi- 
nally confined in their operation to the very narrow limits of the Eng- 
lish power, extended with its extension, and will be found at a later 
and more eventful period of our history to be of material influence.^ 
The law of Poynings, immediately after its enactment, gave rise to a 
great variety of interpretation. It was thought by some, that the 
conditions contained in it were only preliminary to holding a parlia- 
ment, which, when assembled, was competent to treat not alone of 
the matter certified to the crown, but of all matters concerning the 
public weal. Others, on the contrary, contended that the parliament 
was limited to the subjects and acts transmitted from England. The 
parliament for some time acted on both interpretations, and occa- 
sionally passed bills which had. not been transmitted. Such was the 
looseness with which the celebrated law was interpreted shortly after 
its enactment. But the doubts to which it gave rise were settled by 
a declaratory act, the 3d and 4th Philip and Maiy, by which it de- 
clared the chief governor and council empowered, during the session, 
to certify other causes and considerations, &c, as they shall think 
necessary ; but it is also declared that no other acts but those trans- 
mitted either before or during the session could be enacted by parlia- 
ment ; thus, as Leland says, denying the right the parliaments had pre- 

* Hallam's Constitutional History of England, vol. 3, p. 481. t Hallam, vol. 3, p. 482. 

X Some other interesting pieces of legislation, not relative to our subject, were passed in 
Drogheda. The wild war-cries adopted by the English families in imitation of the natives 
were forbidden ; the statutes of Kilkenny, except as far as the use of the Irish language 
was concerned, were revived ; the use of bows and arrows enjoined ; to stir up the Irishry 
to war was declared high treason ; and the lords of Ireland were compelled to wear in 
parliament the same sort of robes as were worn by the English lords in the parliament of 
England. 

2 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

viously assumed, and confining them within stricter limits than before. 
The theory of reduction which Henry the Seventh attempted to 
realize in Ireland, was amply fulfilled in the ruthless reigns of his 
successors, Henry the Eighth, and Elizabeth. By enormous cruelties, 
successful military depredations, depopulation, destruction of the food 
of the people, and by other means of which the barbarities practised 
by the Spaniards in the Americas were but faint resemblances, the 
power of England was declared to be supreme over ashes and carcasses. 
It is, fortunately, no part of our business to deal with the history of 
unparalleled cruelties and oppressions, which Spenser chronicles and 
defends.* It is enough to say, that, after the long war of freedom, 
the country at the beginning of the reign of the first of the weak and 
wicked line of Stuart, was rendered amenable to English law, and 
enjoyed at least the reputation of possessing English institutions. 

The accession of James the First to the throne of England, formed 
a new era in the history of this country. Tyrone had submitted him- 
self to the English power towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth, 
and a peace produced by systematic barbarities, existed through the 
island. James was ambitious of the character of a lawgiver, and his 
scheme of civilizing Ireland was one not without wisdom, though it 
greatly lacked the qualities of justice and mercy. Sheriffs were ap- 
pointed throughout the kingdom; and territorial divisions were establish- 
ed in its every part. The old tenures of gavelkind, and the. custom of 
tanistry were abolished ; the estates of the chieftains were taken into 
the hands of the crown and re-granted with the legal titles under 
which English property was held. The system of English coloniza- 
tion known by the name, formidable in our history, of Plantation, was 
introduced. It was a summary method by which the natives, under 
one false pretence or another — the usual slanders of English avarice, 
rebellion or non-conformity — were expelled from the inheritance of 
their fathers, and a grasping crew of English, but, indeed, principally 
Scotch adventurers, planted in the ancient homes of the people. The 
parliaments of the day were ready agents of confiscation, passing acts 
of attainder as they were required on the most ridiculous pretences, 
and the falsest evidence. Thus, in 1569, O'Neill was attainted, and 
his inherited territories of Down and Antrim were confiscated. In 
1583 the Earl of Desmond was attainted, and 574,628 Irish acres fell 
into the hands of the crown. The tw r o great northern chieftains, 
Tyrone and Tyrconnell, were accused of having engaged in a conspi- 
racy, and aware of the result of awaiting the process of English law, 
they fled the country and were attainted. Five hundred thousand 
acres in Ulster were the rich prey of the king — the splendid prize of 
artful iniquity. And in the domains of the expatriated chiefs of 
Ulster was planted that colony of Scotch and English which "have 
rendered that province, from being the seat of the wildest natives, the 
most flourishing, the most Protestant, and the most enlightened part 
of Ireland."f Such is the moral an English Whig historian finds 

* The " gentle poet" was the eulogist of Grey, whose career in Ireland is so revolting 
from its excesses and abominations.— Leland, p. 287; Hallam, vol. 3, p. 494. 
t Hallam, vol. 3, p. 505. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

in the great scheme of national robbery which was devised by the cor- 
ruptest statesman in England — Bacon* — and executed by the crafty 
and cruel Chichester. f It is worth remark, that it was in that pro- 
vince, too, that the Volunteers of Ireland played a most conspicuous 
part, and the United Irishmen made an unsuccessful effort to effect 
the independence of their country : nor is it a rash surmise that there, 
even in the scene of plunder and oppression, a new race will arise, 
which will compensate the miseries of the Ulster plantation. The 
confiscated lands were, under various conditions divided amongst 104 
English and Scotch undertakers, t 56 servitors, and 286 natives. 

It was in the reign of James that Ireland assumed the uniform po- 
litical appearance it has since, with a short interval, maintained, of a 
subordinated kingdom united to England, and by the construction put 
by English lawyers, and as we think justly, on the law of Poynings, 
with a legislature dependant on that of England. 

Twenty-seven years of rapine, massacre, and disorder had passed, 
since a parliament had been assembled in Ireland, when in 1612 Sir 
Ai-thur Chichester, the deputy of James, intimated his intention of 
summoning a parliament on a wider basis, and influenced by a more 
extensive theory of representation than had been up to that period 
known in Ireland. No one of Irish blood had ever sat in parliament 
until the end of Henry the Eighth's reign ; nor did the Irish Parliament 
even assume to represent the entire island until the reign of James the 
First. There was something constitutional and respectable in the 
name of Parliament, and their sanction to the designs of conquest or 
oppression was seldom withheld. The Recusant party, (as the 
Catholics were called,) however, having still a considerable power in 
the state, and being able to send a great proportion of their representa- 
tives to parliament, the deputy, to counteract their influence, created 
forty new boroughs, of inconsiderable towns, so poor as not to be able 
to pay the wages of their representatives ; they would in the strange- 
ness of modern phraseology be termed " potwollopping-boroughs." 
The establishment of territorial divisions had added seventeen new 
counties to the representative system, imperfect and rude as it then 

* It is singular what parts three of the great literary reputations of England have played 
in Ireland, or in her regard — the corrupt Bacon, the sanguinary Raleigh, and the gentle 
Spenser. The latter of these bad men gratifies the poetic tendencies of his nature in a 
vivid description of the effects of the diabolical policy which he has the hardihood to 
defend. The suggestions of the poet are to the following effect : — " The end will (I assure 
mee) be very short, and much sooner than it can be in so great a trouble as it seemeth 
hoped for ; although there should none of them fall by the sworde. nor be slain by the 
soldiour ; yet their being kept from manurance, and their cattle from running abroad, by 
this hard restraint they would quickly consume themselves and devour one an- 
other." — Spenser's Ireland, p. 165. The result of the false and vicious morality which 
pervades English literature cannot be better illustrated than by the fact, that we are taught 
to think admiringly of a wretch capable of devising so horrible a villany as that which his 
own callous penlhus coldly records ! 

t Chichester reaped the reward of superintending this grand project of plunder. James 
was " so well pleased with the progress of his schemes of reformatio?!," that he vested him 
with the territory of Innishowen, and all the lands lately belonging to Sir Cahir O'Dogherty. 
Leland, vol. 2, p. 438. 

\ The division was, firstly, to English and Scotch, who were to plant their lands with 
English and Scorch tenants. Secondly, to men employed under government, who might 
take English or Irish tenants as they pleased. Thirdly, to the natives of the confiscated 
estates, who were to be freeholders. For the full understanding of the duties and charac- 
ter of undertakers, see Harris's Hibcrnica, p. 66 ; Leland, vol. 2, p. 433. 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

was. The new parliament, which was loudly exclaimed against by 
the six lords of the pale, Gormanslown, Slane, Killeen, Trimhleston, 
Dunsany, and Lowth, was thus intended to present the appearance of 
general representation in which not only the British settlers but the 
native people were to have a voice. Sir John Davies of the king's 
party was elected speaker. The details of the factious proceedings of 
the parliament of 1613 are irrelevant to our subject. It is sufficient to 
remark, that this was the first parliament in which the whole people 
were supposed to be represented. The number of members was 232 ; 
it was on many other occasions increased, and in 1692 reached 300.* 
The effect of this augmentation of the representation and increase of 
the boroughs, will be found afterwards to have been the most fatal 
engine in the destruction of the Irish constitution in 1800. 

The history of subsequent parliaments, to the period of the enact- 
ment of 6th George the First, may be very briefly despatched. The 
parliaments of Charles the First were subservient and rebellious — 
they were the instruments of Wentworth whilst he was powerful, 
and they aided the Commons of England in his destruction, after he 
had fallen from the dignity he so scandalously abused. 

The parliament of Charles the Second gave up the purse of the 
nation by granting customs and excise in perpetuity, thus completing 
the voluntary surrender of all material power. It was said by Grat- 
tan, in moving the Declaration of Right, that though Ireland had sur- 
rendered her claim to propound and deliberate by Poynings' Act, and 
the purse of the nation by the grant in perpetuity of Excise and 
Customs, " still she had not given up her legislation." It is difficult 
to see what she had reserved, except it be the right to adopt the legis- 
lation of England and to re-enact it; and even this was taken from 
her by the 6th of George the First. 

During the reigns of Charles the First and Charles the Second, 
the legislation of the country was in fact vested in the privy council: 
a negative was merely left to the parliament, and the only mode even 
of suggesting legislation was by an address to the Lord Lieutenant. 
After the Revolution, Heads of Bills were presented, which to some 
extent resembled acts of parliaments, with the difference that in place 
of the usual enacting words " be it enacted," the house " prayed that 
the bills might be passed." 

The parliament of the Revolution is immortal from the perfidy with 
which it disregarded and violated the articles of the Treaty of Limerick, 
and from having originated the extraordinary code under which the Ca- 
tholics of Ireland were so long and so terribly oppressed ; but its history 
presents no feature of interest. It made no struggle for its own free- 
dom ; it scandalously adopted the jealous legislation which sacrificed the 
woollen trade of Ireland. It made no struggle to disenthral itself of the 
parliamentary supremacy of England — this remained an unquestioned 
and degrading fact. It was as contemptible a body as any that ever as- 
sumed the functions of legislation. Its two grand achievements were 
the persecution of the Catholics, and the destruction of the trade of their 

* Sir John Davies wrote an elaborate argument to prove that no parliament was ever 
held in Ireland until James's reign. His object was to exaggerate the merit of his master, 
and to represent him as the founder of a constitution. 



17 INTRODUCTION. 

country. In a vain attempt to usurp all the power of the state, the par- 
liaments of William and of Anne accumulated on the devoted heads of 
the Catholics, a mass of penal legislation unparalleled in the history of 
human oppression. Butafter having had their own will of the Catholics, 
being allowed to use freely the powers of legislation whilst engaged in 
the grateful work of torture ; they found out at last, that they were only 
permitted the privilege of persecution to serve the purposes of England. 
For the 6th George the First gave the last blow to any legislative 
freedom which might have survived the restrictions of ages — and 
plainly demonstrated to the Protestant nation, how little they had to 
expect at the hands of the English parliaments to which they had sold 
the trade and liberties of their country for the right to persecute and 
rob their " popish" fellow-countrymen. 

This act had its rise in the following way. The impression became 
general through Ireland that it was impossible that civil liberty or 
social wealth could be acquired under the existing system of com- 
mercial and legislative restriction. This feeling found an organ in the 
celebrated Molyneux, whose " Case of Ireland, being bound by acts 
of parliament in England, stated," whilst it received the applause of 
the intelligent men in this country, was burned by the common hang- 
man at the bidding of the English House of Commons. It was con- 
sidered in England a very dangerous work, dangerous in its tendency 
to the crown and people of England, by denying the authority of the 
king and parliament of England to bind the kingdom and people of 
Ireland, and by refusing to recognize the subordination and dependence 
Ireland had, and ought to have upon England ! But dangerous as its 
tendency doubtlessly was to the theory of oppression and servility, its 
lessons sunk deep into the hearts of the people, and produced effects 
too alarming to English notions not to require the most stringent mea- 
sures of restriction. These effects will be seen in the events con- 
nected with the cause of Sherlock and Annesley in the year 1719 ; 
that cause was tried in the Irish Court of Exchequer, between Esther 
Sherlock and Maurice Annesley, in which the latter obtained a de- 
cree, which on an appeal to the Irish House of Lords was reversed. 
From this sentence, Annesley appealed to the English House of 
Lords, who confirmed the judgment of the Irish Exchequer, and 
issued process to put him into possession of the litigated property. 
Esther Sherlock petitioned the Irish Lords against the usurped au- 
thority of England, and they having taken the opinion of the judges, 
resolved that they would support their honour, jurisdiction, and pri- 
vileges, by giving effectual relief to the petitioner. Sherlock was put 
into possession by the sheriff of Kildare : an injunction issued from 
the Court of Exchequer in Ireland, pursuant to the decree of the 
English Lords, directing him to restore Annesley ; the sheriff, (let 
his name be honoured!) Alexander Burro wes, refused obedience. 
He was protected in a contumacy which so nobly contrasts the 
wonted servility of the judges, by the Irish Lords, who addressed a 
powerful state paper to the Throne, recapitulating the rights of Ire- 
land, her independent parliament, and peculiar jurisdiction. They 
went further, for they sent the Irish barons to jail ; but the king hav- 



INTRODUCTION. 18 

ing the address of the Irish Lords laid before the English house, the 
latter re-affirmed their proceedings, and supplicated the throne to 
confer some mark of special favour on the servile judges, who, in 
relinquishing their own jurisdiction, had sacrificed the liberties of 
their country. 

This contest produced the arbitrary piece of legislation, 6th George 
the First. It is well that we should be aware of the pretensions which 
were set at rest in '82, by the eloquence of Flood and Grattan, and 
by the arms of the Volunteers. The following are the clauses of this 
act which established the entire dependance of Ireland : — 

" Whereas attempts have been lately made to shake off the sub- 
jection of Ireland upon the Imperial Crown of this realm ; which will 
be of dangerous consequences to Great Britain and Ireland. And 
whereas the Lords of Ireland, in order thereto, have of late, against 
law, assumed to themselves a power and jurisdiction to examine, cor- 
rect, and amend, the judgment and decrees of the courts of justice, in 
the kingdom of Ireland ; therefore, for the better securing of the de- 
pendancy of Ireland upon the crown of Great Britain, may it please 
3 r our Majesty, that it may be enacted, and it is hereby declared and 
enacted, by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice 
and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in 
the present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, 
that the said kingdom of Ireland hath been, and of right ought to be, 
subordinate unto and dependant upon the Imperial Crown of Great 
Britain, as being inseparably annexed and united thereunto ; and that 
the King's Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords 
Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons of Great Britain, in parliament 
assembled, hath had of right, and ought to have full power and autho- 
rity to make laws, and statutes, of sufficient force and validity, to bind 
the people and the kingdom of Ireland. 

" And be it further enacted, and declared, by the authority afore- 
said, that the House of Lords of Ireland have not, nor of right ought 
to have, any jurisdiction, to judge, affirm, or reverse any judgment, 
sentence, or decree, given or made in any court within the same king- 
dom ; and that all proceedings before the said House of Lords, upon 
any such judgment, sentence, or decree, are, and are hereby declared 
to be utterly null and void, to all intents and purposes whatever." 

Such was the last of these statutes by which England, aided by the 
servility of Ireland, destroyed the legislative freedom of the Irish 
Parliament. 

Grattan, addressing the House of Commons in 1780, said, " Your 
ancestors who sat within these two walls, lost to Ireland her trade and 
liberty ; you by the assistance of the people, have recovered trade, 
you still owe the kingdom liberty ; she calls upon you to restore it." 

How trade and liberty were both acquired ; by what arms, and by 
what men ; by how much genius, courage, and fidelity a momentary 
glory was won for this country it will be our task to tell — we gladly 
leave to others the mournful recapitulation of the treasons, perfidies 
and weakness, which overthrew the constitution erected by the states- 
men and warriors of 1782. 



THE HISTORY 



THE VOLUITEEES 



CHAPTER I. 



Swift— Wood's Halfpence— Division on the Supplies — Debate on the Surplus — Reign of 
George the Third — Lucas — Octennial Bill — Money Bill — Lord Townshend's Administra- 
tion — Lord Harcouit's Administration — The American Question — Embargo on the Ex- 
port of Irish Provisions — The American Revolution — The Volunteers. 

There is little in the parliamentary details, contained in the Intro- 
duction, of which we have reason to be proud. England assumed at 
her pleasure to make laws to bind Ireland, which our legislature but 
too often subserviently adopted or timidly opposed. The right to a 
seat in either house was taken from the Catholics by an English act 
of William and Mary, and the Irish legislature — too bent on the ful- 
filment of that base and cruel bargain by which they sold the trade 
and freedom of their country for the privileges of persecution — did 
not in anywise resent this aggression on the constitutional liberties 
confided to their worthless hands. With patriotism — what purity 
could we look for in such an assembly of servile tyrants .' 

But the reign of George the First opened a new era, when we 
become acquainted with that school of patriots, who, however occa- 
sionally venal and corrupt, first boldly propounded those doctrines of 
constitutional freedom which, enforced by Flood and Grattan, and 
seconded by the arms of the Volunteers, were triumphant in the Bill 
of Rights. That the patriots of that day and hence to the era of 
constitutional freedom were often either corrupt or influenced by 
the meanest motives is undeniably true — there were but too many 
Henry Boyles amongst them — and the peerage of Ireland owes some 
titled names to the facility with which a compromise was struck 
between the ambition or necessities, and the principles of the patriots 
of the eighteenth century. 

The first man, and if not the greatest, at least amongst the greatest 
of our countrymen, who struck fire from the heart of Ireland was a 
sour and banished divine, one who looked on an Irish home as an 
uncomfortable necessity, and who turned his eyes with mournful 
memory to the scenes of English refinement which he had unwil- 



20 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

lingly relinquished for his native "Beotian air."* But Swift pos- 
sessed qualities of no vulgar nature, and great learning. Wit and 
logic of the most trenchant power, with vast historical knowledge and 
great contemporaneous political information, combined to make him a 
formidable enemy to the schemes or violences of a government he 
hated. A truly formidable enemy he proved himself to be, judging 
him by that standard of criticism which English statesmen have so 
often supplied, namely the price set upon his head. Vainly, however, 
did government pursue him — vainly — for the principles he preached, 
with unrivalled manly eloquence, were immortal and diffusive. They 
reproduced themselves in every future period of our history — they 
were active in every struggle of our freedom — they nerved the arms 
of the national army — they inspired the hearts of the orators of 
the Commons, and when they triumphed in the Bill of Rights. Grat- 
tan paid the splendid tribute of a grateful nation to their benefactor, 
in that burst of unequalled power in which he apostrophises a libe- 
rated country : 

" Spirit of Swift ! spirit of Molyneux, your genius has preva led ! 
Ireland is now a nation ! In that new character I hail her ! and bow- 
ing to her august presence, I say, ' Esto perpetua.' " 

A deficiency was experienced in the coinage of the kingdom of 
Ireland, about the year 1722. There was a great dearth of copper 
currency; and the people complained of the inconvenience. They 
demanded the liberty to coin what they required, and were refused. 
England undertook to supply a remedy, which proved in the sequel 
to be like her other remedies, very base, and very dear. A patent 
was granted to one William Wood, " a mean, ordinary man," whose 
representations and requests weighed more in the mind of the British 
monarch, than those of the whole people of Ireland. Wood ob- 
tained a patent to coin £108,000 of copper, and thereby the power 
of flooding the country with a base currency was given thus un- 
sparingly to a mean and scheming varlet, who had no interest t — 
except an English interest — in Ireland, namely, to get as much out of 
the people as he could, and to give them as little in return. But Swift 
saw the evil and was bent upon defeating it. He wrote and published 
a series of papers under the title of Drapier, unsurpassed in the effects 
they produced, and not equalled by the admirable letters of Malachi 
Malagrowther.t The whole nation got up in a rage ; addresses 
poured upon the Throne from the Privy Council, from gentlemen 
assembled at quarter sessions and assizes ; the grand jury of Dublin 
presented as criminals, the men who offered the base coinage to the 
people. This was perhaps the first time, when Irishmen of all grades 
felt together, and acted together. The invasion of bad coin did what 
the invasion of the plundering chivalry of Normandy could not do — 
it united Ireland. It combined all the elements of political life against 

* See Pope's Dunciad — passim. 

t Swift says his £108.000 was only worth £8000. 

% These were letters written by Sir Walter Scott, to prevent some mischievous changes 
in the currency and some alterations in the banking laws, which the rage of uniformity 
prompted the English ministry to introduce into Scotland. They are excellent Repeal 
documents. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 21 

England, and these elements were held for a long time together, in a 
state of combination ; and though afterwards often dissipated, a new 
and hitherto unfelt tendency to unite was created, and produced in 
lime effects of great though not lasting brilliancy. The author of 
Drapier's letters, was, as might be expected, an object of persecution. 
There was no virtue too pure, no patriotism too generous, no genius 
too profound to protect an Irishman from the animosity of English 
government. But the people were true to their advocate, and would 
not accept the corrupt money of the oppressor, whether it came in the 
form of Wood's copper farthings, or from the Castle treasury. They 
next resorted to the printer, whom they prosecuted ; but he, more 
fortunate than the victims of the Attorney-General usually are, found 
a jury incapable of doing the duty of government, and he was unani- 
mously acquitted. The patent was revoked, with a recommendation 
from Primate Boulter, that the baffled copper coiner, as a choice 
object of English bounty, should obtain a retiring salary for his ser- 
vices and virtues. Observe the policy of government, setting a price 
on the head of Jonathan Swift — and conferring its bounties on Wil- 
liam Wood! Molyneux's "Case of Ireland" was burned by the 
hands of the fit representative of English power, the hangman ; Swift 
hi d a price set on his head ; and at a later period Lucas, a man quite 
as zealous though not as able, was forced to fly his country; and his 
writings were prosecuted as libels for maintaining the freedom of the 
Irish constitution. The history of a government, may be well read 
in its rewards and punishments. 

The defeat of Wood was the first triumph of the virtue of the 
country, and the first lesson of union taught to a divided nation. It 
was learned — but slowly and not as yet perfectly. 

Next in order of time, of the important events in our parliamen- 
tary history, is the division on the supplies. The national debt was 
o£200,000, and for the payment of the principal and interest, the 
supplies were voted from session to session. In the administration 
of the Duke of Dorset, and the reign of George the Second, a 
gross attempt was made to grant the supplies, set aside to pay the 
debt and the interest, to the king and his successors for ever. This 
propositicn was violently resisted by the patriots, who asserted that 
it was unconstitutional to vote the sum for a longer period, than 
from session to session. The government, defeated in this attempt, 
sought to grant it for 21 years, and a warm debate ensued. Just as 
the division was about taking place, the ministerialists and patriots 
being nearly equal, Colonel Tottenham, an oppositionist, entered. 
He was dressed in boots, contrary to the etiquette of the house, which 
prescribed full dress. His vote gave the majority to the patriots, and 
the government was defeated by Tottenham in his boots. This be- 
came one of the toasts of patriotism, and was given in all the social 
meetings. 

The accession of George Stone to the primacy and to the virtual 
government of Ireland, was felt for the time to be a great blow to the 
patriot party. Stone was an unscrupulous ecclesiastic, devoted to 
the maintenance of the English interest against the Irish people. He 



22 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

stooped to the most polluted means to procure adherents — some have 
gone so far as to say that he converted his private residence into a 
trap baited with all the temptations of sense, with wine and easy 
beauty to catch the light youth of the metropolis. His personal de- 
meanour was full of haughty dignity : his measures were arbitrary, 
and his power overweening. He was opposed in the exercise of the 
latter, by Henry Boyle, Speaker of the House of Commons : and 
their rivalries, though dignified on the part of Boyle with the name 
of patriotism, were no more than the struggles of two ambitious 
and powerful men for their own ends. Their personal contests were 
most violent on a subject of some importance, which renewed the 
ardour of the nation, and shed lustre on the debates of the Com- 
mons. The matter, though despatched summarily by an arbitrary 
act of the King, sunk deep in the hearts of a people, lately moved 
by the writings, the labours, and the sufferings of Lucas.* It oc- 
curred in this way : — 

In 1753, a surplus after the public service remained in the treasury. 
The Commons proceeded to bring in the heads of a bill to apply it 
to the payment of the national debt. The Duke of Dorset told them 
that the King " consented.! and recommended them to apply it to the 
reduction of the debt." Consent involved a principle, and the Com- 
mons took fire at the word. They sent the bill to England, taking no 
notice of the royal consent. The bill was transmitted with the con- 
sent introduced — the patriots were not strong enough to resist the 
change — but next year they rejected the bill, which had the same un- 
constitutional word. The King by his letters patent taking the money 
out of the treasury, cut the matter short. It was an act of simple 
despotism, and excited such rage amongst the people, that the Duke 
of Dorset, formerly a most popular viceroy, fled the country in abject 
fear. However, despotism without corruption was not considered as 
a fit exemplar of government — and the matter for the present termin- 
ated by a title and a pension conferred on the greatest patriot of the 
day; Henry Boyle bore about the blushing honours of his public vir- 

* Dr. Lucas was a man of great energy and honesty, and had a good share of talent. Ho 
supported the principles of freedom, and if he wrote with less genius than others, he wrote 
with more courage ; for liberty was not in fashion in his days. He was bom in 1713. His 
ancestors were farmers in Clare. He set up as an apothecary in Dublin ; but without re- 
linquishing his avocations, it must be said that he loved his politics more than his drugs. 
He was elected a member of the Common Council, and forthwith set about agitating to 
establish the right of the whole corporate body to appoint aldermen. The board of alder- 
men had heretofore usurped that privilege. For his writings on this subject, and on the 
greater subject of free legislation, he was obliged to fly from Ireland. On his return, after 
some time, he was elected a member for the city of Dublin. His career was hencefor- 
ward one of great activity and zealous patriotism. Hardy, in his life of Charlemont, en- 
deavours to undervalue Lucas — but that biographer is as unsuccessful in his invectives as 
in his eulogiums. Lucas practised successfully as a physician, and attended Lord Charle- 
mont. In his old age. and amidst too many infirmities, he was respected and esteemed. 
He was married three times, and had children each time. He died in 1771, having done 
much to advance the principles which the Volunteers established. He is thus described : — 
"The gravity and uncommon neatness of his dress; his gray, venerable locks, blending 
with a pale but interesting countenance, in which an air of beauty was still visible, alto- 
gether excited attention to no small degree." (See Lives of Illustrious Irishmen — me- 
moir of Charles Lucas.) He was a bigot, and would have excepted the Catholics from 
the freedom he sought to establish. But bigotry was then and is now the fault of even 
better men than the hot and hasty agitator of the council. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 23 

tue, emblazoned on the coronet of the Earl of Shannon. The pri- 
mate did not fare so well, he was removed from the Privy Council. 
The rest of the patriots found comfortable retreats in varions lucra- 
tive offices, and the most substantial compliments were paid to those 
who were noisiest in their patriotism and fiercest in their opposition. 

A better spirit appeared on another question in 1757. Some strong 
resolutions of a committee appointed to inspect the public accounts 
were reported to the house,* which determined that they, accompa- 
nied by their Speaker, should attend the Lord Lieutenant and should 
desire his Excellency to lay the resolutions before the King. He 
gave a quibbling answer, but a refusal — a division ensued on the ques- 
tion whether his reply was satisfactory ; and the government was beat- 
en by a majority of twenty-one. It was important to have cleared 
the way to the King, but more important to have chastised the inso- 
leuce of his deputy. The spirit of the debates was animated and just 
— it breathed of legislative freedom ; and though the doctrines were 
not yet ripened nor the courage of men sufficient to demand a Con- 
stitution, every successive triumph over the English interest — each 
victory over the insolence of power, prepared the nation for what was 
to be. The fruit was slowly but surely coming to its maturity : the 
seed which was planted by the learning of Molyneux, and tended by 
the genius of Swift, and intrepidity of Lucas, was soon to break the 
earth and ripen to the glory of the country. The nation waited but 
an example of successful patriotism; and all the subsequent events 
prepared the mind of Ireland for the lessons of freedom, which were 
before long to be borne across the Atlantic from a young and liberated 
world. 

The reign of George the Third was one which, beyond all others, 
destructive to the glory and injurious to the prestige of England, in 
which her armies were captured, her flag dishonoured, and her policy 
made a sport and a scorn, was distinguished in the history of Ireland 
for struggles of lofty patriotism and national virtue. Yet the com- 
mencement of the reign was not auspicious. The country was torn 
by the agrarian outrages of the White Boys, Oak Boys, and the 
Hearts of Steel. The peasantry, labouring under every form of ex- 
action, ground into the dust by the requisitions of the landlord and 
the visitations of the immemorially accursed agent of clerical right, 
the tithe proctor, rose in riot to do violence against a system they only 
knew by their miseries. However, the remedy was at hand — not to 
lessen rent or abolish tithe : the ready gibbet did its duty, and tran- 
quillity was restored. Meanwhile, emigration drew away thousands 
from the North of Ireland ; and the armies of America gained many 
a recruit through the active services of the driver and the tithe 
proctor* 

One of the greatest measures which the patriots carried was the 
Octennial Bill. Lucas had worked with incessant energy in the ser- 
vice of his country ; but disheartened with repeated failure, and hav- 
ing but little hope of effecting substantial constitutional freedom, he 

* Plowden's History, 8vo. vol. 2, p. 78; see also a useful book, edited by the late Johu 
Lawless, Belfast Politics, p. 38. 



24 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

often sighed with the bitterness of a good man working in vain. BuX 
he worked.* One object of his struggles often sought for, alway* 
eluding his grasp, was to limit the duration of parliament. The lea»j& 
for life which men held in their seats rendered responsibility a delusion 
— and the length to which their corrupt services might thus extend 
made the wages of servility enormous. It was an evil of serious 
magnitude, and Lucas met it with boldness, and at length triumphed 
over it. The Octennial Bill was sent to England, and returned. It 
passed both houses and received the royal assent. The horses wage 
taken from the Viceroy's carriage, and the people drew him home* 
Some doubts arose as to the benefits produced by this bill in the way 
designed by its framers ; but no one doubted that the spirit discovered 
by the patriot party in the house produced effects at the time and 
somewhat later, which cannot be overstated or overvalued. It may, 
indeed, be doubted whether any measure, however beneficial in itself, 
could in those days of venality and oppression, with a constitution so 
full of blemishes, and a spirit of intolerance influencing the best and 
ablest men of the day, such as Lucas, for example, could be produc- 
tive of any striking or permanent advantage. We must not be aston- 
ished then that the Octennial Bill was found incommensurate wifcb 
the expectations of the patriots, who might have looked for the rea- 
sons of this and similar disappointments in their own venality, intoler- 
ance, fickleness, and shortcomings, if they had chosen to reflect or 
themselves and their motives. The real advantages are to be found ir 
the principles propounded and the spirit displayed in the debates. 

The next parliament after the passing of the Octennial Bill met or 
the 17th of October, 1769. Lord Townshend was Lord Lieutenant 
The struggle between the English interest and the patriots was nevei 
more violent, and never more successful, on the part of the friends oi 
the people, than in the parliament which Lord Townshend met. Hi 
came to Ireland the master of parliamentary tactics — a practised man 
ager of contumacious senators. f No effects were too unlikely or to< 

* In one of his late writings, there is an affecting confession of the weariness he felt o 
a life of labour and sacrifice spent in vain, (Lives of Illustrious Irishmen, vol. 5, Part I., ] 
152,) in the following painful language : — " I have quitted a comfortable settlement ik 
free country to embark in your service. I have attended constantly, closely, strictly t 
my duty. I have broken my health, impaired my fortune, hurt my family, and lost a 
object dearer to me than life, by engaging with unwearied care and painful assiduity! 
this sad, thankless, perilous service. All this might be tolerable, if I could find myself usi 
ful to you or my country. But the only benefit I can see results to those upon whom 
cannot look as friends of my country, bands of policemen and pensioners, whose merit 
enhanced, and whose number has been generally increased in proportion to the oppos 
tion given to the measures of government. I dare not neglect, much less desert, my st 
tion ; but I wish by any lawful, honourable means, for my dismissal." — What if Luci 
could have seen our modern perfection of police ? 

t A very witty warfare was carried on against Lord Townshend in a collection of lette 
on the affairs and history of Barataria, by which was intended Ireland. The letters < 
Posthumus and Pericles, and the dedication, were written by Henry Grattan, at the tin 
of the publication a very young man. The principal papers, and all the history of Bai 
taria, the latter being an account of Lord Townshend's administration, his protest, at 
his prorogation, were the composition of Sir Hercules Langrishe. Two of his witticism 
are still remembered, as being, in fact, short essays on the politics of Ireland. Ridinjj 
the Park with the Lord Lieutenant, his Excellency complained of his predecessors havii 
left it so damp and marshy : Sir Hercules observed, " they were too much engaged 
draining the rest of the kingdom." Being asked where was the best and truest histo 
of Ireland to be found ? he answered, " In the continuation of Rapin." 






HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 25 



remote for his genius to attempt — and he had his hands filled to over- 
flowing with those splendid excuses for political profligacy which the 
pp.- riots of that day appreciated but too well. But Lord Townshend, 
in making his bargains with recreant patriotism, had left open one 
question on which the Irish members appeared obstinate — the right 
to resist the originating of money bills in England. 

The English Privy Council claimed this right to the destruction 
of the constitutional powers of the Irish Commons. The latter re- 
fused to pass a money bill, sent from England, and added the causes 
of the rejection, that it had originated in the English Privy Council 
and not in the Irish Legislature. Lord Townshend sought to place his 
protest on the books of the Commons ; they would not permit so 
gross an encroachment on their privileges. The Lords, however, did 
not refuse and it was solemnly recorded in their books ; but it does not 
seem to have done much for the English interest, to restore which to 
all its pristine vigor was the special mission of Townshend to Ireland. 
The Money Bill was again refused by ninety-four to seventy-one, and 
it was resolved that the hill was rejected because it did not take its rise 
in the Irish Commons. These affairs gave great umbrage in England ; 
and the press there abounded with the most insulting representations 
o f " the transaction. WoodfaWs Public Advertiser of the 9th of De- 
cember, containing some offensive paragraphs, the Irish Commons 
remembered the precedents of England, and ordered the paper to be 
burned by the hangman.* They further resolved to address the Lord 
Lieutenant, to inform them whether it was his intention to prorogue 
the house; and they carried the address by a majority of one hun- 
dred and six to seventy-three. The Secretary brought up to the house 
his reply, which was not gracious, and he put an end to his own dis- 
comfitures and the triumphs of the patriots by proroguing parliament 
with most indecent haste. This measure, whilst it enabled him to 
set more active agencies at work to diminish the force of the Opposi- 
tion, and consolidate the English interest, "to do the King's business" 
more effectually than he had done it since his arrival, gave great cause 
of anger and disgust to the parliament and the people of Ireland. He 
dismissed the members in a short and offensive speech, which the 
house with great spirit refused to insert upon their journals. Upon 
the occasion of this prorogation, unexpected and unconstitutioual, 
Mr. Ponsonby, the Speaker, made a speech at the bar of the House 

* It was in the following words : — " Hibernian patriotism is a transcript of that filthy idol 
worshipped at the London Tavern: insolence, assumed from an opinion of impunity, 
usurps the place which boldness against real injuries ought to hold. The refusal of the 
late bill, because it was not brought in contrary to the practice of ages, in violation of the 
constitution, and to the certain ruin of the dependence of Ireland upon Great Britain, is a 
behaviour more suiting an army of White Boys, than the grave representatives of a na- 
tion. This is the most daring insult that has been otfered to government. It must be 
counteracted with firmness, or else the state is ruined. Let the refractory house be dis- 
solved ; should the next copy their example, let it also be dissolved; and if the same spirit 
of seditious obstinacy should continue, I know no remedy but one, and it is extremely 
obvious. The Parliament of Great Britain is supreme over its conquests, as well as Colo- 
nies, and the service of the nation must not be left undone, on account of the factious ob- 
stinacy of a provincial assembly. Let our legislature, for they have an undoubted right, 
vote the Irish supplies ; and so save a nation that their own obstinate representatives en- 
deavour to ruin." 

3 



26 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS, 

of Lords, of which the journals take no notice whatsoever. Plow- 
den, in his history, (vol. ii. page 110, of the small 8vo edition,) says 
that his speech was very spirited. It appears to have been peculiarly 
tame. It is filled with the usual servile common places ; testifies the 
accustomed loyalty to his Majesty's person, and presents two bills of 
supply, voted during the last session. It is not singular that the 
House of Lords takes no notice of the speech. 

Lord Harcourt succeeded Lord Townshend, and adopted his policy 
of consolidating the English interest. In the same degree that the 
feeling and organization of a national party were growing stronger, 
the exertions of the faction in the confidence of government became 
zealous to create an antagonist influence. However, Lord Harcourt 
had one merit, the proposition of an absentee tax of two shillings in 
the pound on the net. results of all landed property, payable by all 
parties not residing in the country for six months. It is wonderful 
how old are most of the remedies which modern conservatism stigma- 
tizes with the name of innovation. The proposal was, however, by 
the usual influence, rejected ; but by a small majority. Concessions, 
too, were made in this administration to the Catholics. But its general 
tone and temper was tyrannic and profligate. The national debt was 
increased, and several pensions created to reward the usual services 
which England stood in need of here. 

The American question was every day becoming serious ; the last 
resort of war had nearly arrived, and it is strange enough that just at 
the time the colonies were breaking out into open insurrection, the 
strong analogies between the case of America and Ireland were pointed 
out by a furious English member, Mr. Rigby, who had been Secretary 
to the Duke of Bedford, and who held what was then a sinecure, the 
office of Master of the Rolls in Ireland. In a debate on certain com- 
mercial advantages about to be extended by the House of Commons in 
England to the Irish people, this Rigby said that "the Parliament of 
England had a right to tax Ireland in all cases whatsoever as welt as 
America" 

The expression was fortunate ; it suggested identity of grievance 
and identity of resistance. The analogy was entirely complete when 
the arms of America vindicated her freedom, and when the constitution 
of Ireland was restored by the Declaration of Right. In both cases 
there was rude aggression — in both cases the right assumed to dictate 
legislation — in both cases there was taxation without representation — 
in both cases the people flew to arms — in both cases they triumphed ; 
but in the case of Ireland, the fruits of hard won victory was lost — but 
not for ever. 

The season of war was in England made a season of commercial 
speculation and further plunder of Ireland. Under the plausible 
excuse of preventing this country from supplying America with pro- 
visions, an embargo was laid on their exportation. The real design of 
this ruinous measure, was to allow the British speculators to ply their 
trade without any rivalry. The poverty and the perils of the country 
at this period may be imagined from two propositions made by the 
government. One was to draw 4000 troops out of the establishment, 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 27 

which were not to be paid by Ireland unless when employed in that 
country : another was to introduce 4000 foreign troops into the king- 
dom. These troops, as an inducement, were to be Protestants. But 
the Protestant Parliament of Ireland spurned the servile thought, and 
negatived the proposition of the minister by a large majority. They 
addressed the Lord Lieutenant, and assured him that they would render 
such a measure unnecessary by their own exertions. This was a 
great step towards liberty. 

We have now arrived at the period of the American Revolution, the 
giant-birth of a new world of liberty. 

The great questions involved in the dispute between England and 
her colonies, were also the subject of discussion between England and 
Ireland. It is not therefore at all surprising, that the development and 
progress of the Revolution were watched with great anxiety by the 
Irish people, and that they desired to view the triumph of their own 
principles, in the success of the American arms, and to read the final 
issue of their own efforts, in the establishment of a free government 
on the other side of the Atlantic. The example of America was con- 
tagious, and Ireland was not long without showing some of the symp- 
toms of revolution. 

But there was another cause at work with the Irish nation in 
exciting the spirit which was so wonderfully heightened by the Revo- 
lution of the colonies : namely, the poverty of the people. The misery 
of the peasants ; the broken and decayed fortunes of the manufacturers ; 
the general decline or ruin of trade and commerce were brought home 
without much difficulty to a long course of selfish legislation by the 
parliaments of England ; which the servile assemblies of Ireland had 
not the courage or the virtue to repudiate. 

The latest act of English influence was before the nation in all its 
destructive effects. The embargo on the export of provisions, imposed 
by a proclamation of the Privy Council, had increased beyond measure 
the distresses of the people ; the manufacturers in Dublin were with- 
out employment ; the tables of the House groaned under the numerous 
petitions of the impoverished population ; and the many voices of woe 
spoke in the ears of a deaf and hardened government. The restrictions 
on commerce went hand in hand with a profligate pension list, sine- 
cure salaries, and wanton application of the public money, to the 
extravagance of Administration. 

Lord Harcourt left Ireland in 1776, and Lord Buckinghamshire 
assumed the reins of government, at a period when the distresses of 
the people were at their height. Government had little money to 
spare to alleviate the urgent wants of an impoverished country — the 
liberalities of the Pension List, the enormous salaries to reward 
sycophancy and secret services, had drained the government purse, 
and taxed to the utmost the endurance of the people. The expenses 
in 1777, exceeded by <£80,000 the revenue; Ireland had been long a 
slave, she was now a bankrupt ; and had been brought to this state 
by the policy of England. The code of preventive law, which reduced 
the country to so impoverished a condition, having no excuse in the re- 
ligious passions, and being the result of mere monopoly, presents even 



28 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

more repugnant features than the Penal Laws. The latter were in- 
tended to destroy a creed ; but the Commercial Restrictive Code had 
a much wider object — to ruin a people. The laws against the Cath- 
olic were, to the greatest degree, sanguinary ; but those statutes 
which forbid industry, and made the gifts of God lie idly unproduc- 
tive in the midst of an impoverished people, were more abundant in 
the spirit of despotic evil than the other. " The distresses of the 
kingdom," said Grattan, "are twofold : the poverty of the people, and 
the bankruptcy of the State. The first I will not ask the commis- 
sioners of the revenue to prove ; but I will ask them upon oath, 
whether the restrictions on our trade are not the cause ? Whether 
the prohibitions laid on by England against the exports of woollen 
cloths did not occasion it ? Whether there were not too many in- 
habitants in this kingdom, though not half peopled ?* Whether, if to 
those inhabitants the American continent were still open, would they 
not have emigrated thither, rather than pine in their native land the 
victims of English tyranny, rather than starve in it by an English act 
of parliament?" 

The power of England had scarcely left the limits of the Pale, 
and bloodily extended under the banners of Elizabeth over the whole 
island, when the restrictive policy which afterwards wrought such 
numerous evils, was adopted towards the productive industry of the 
people. From the earliest acquaintance of England with this coun- 
try, there had existed a certain degree of manufacturing skill among 
the natives. Even our first imported libeller, whilst he asserted that 
they possessed no manner of merchandize, nor practised mechanical 
arts, informs us of articles among them, whose use implies a consid- 
erable degree of skill and ingenuity, namely, cloth dresses, fringes, 
linen shirts, steeled military weapons, musical instruments, and other 
works of art, which could not have been produced by men described 
in the terms of wanton insult, which the venomous ecclesiastic has 
chosen to adopt. f It must indeed be confessed, that the details con- 
nected with the industrial employments of the ancient Irish are diffi- 
cult, if not impossible to be obtained. The peaceful noises of industry 
are drowned in the wild clamours of war ; and the mind of the stu- 
dent of our afflicting history is diverted from the pursuit of such in- 
formation by the singular events recorded in its pages — the details of 
savage warfare against the Irish enemy, of furious vengeance on the 
foreign tyrant, of rigorous exclusion and of mean concession. J But 
we may infer from certain pieces of legislation in the reign of Eliza- 

* That is, having in view the restricted productive powers and the obstructed industry 
of the people. It is a well acknowledged truth, that Ireland is capable of sustaining a popu- 
lation inconceivably greater than the present. 

t See the accounts of Gerald Barry, a priest who accompanied Henry to Ireland. He 
is known by his assumed name of Giraldus Cambrensis. He was a Welchman. See 
Moore's History, vol. 2, p. 343. 

} For example, the repeal of the interdict against holding traffic or trade with the natives, 
in the reign of Henry the Fourth ; and during the same reign the extension of charters of 
denization to the natives, and the payment of Black Rent to the Irish enemies who hem- 
med in the English within the miserable boundaries of the Pale. These concessions, ex- 
acted by fear, were despised by the bold warriors of the country ; and the protection of 
the Black Rent was inadequate against the bitter memories and furious passions of the 
people. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 29 

beth, that the spirit of industry was not altogether laid, and that the 
people had to some extent become exporters ; for, by an act passed 
whilst she held the sceptre of England,* they were forbidden to send 
their cattle out of Ireland. But the attempt tended rather to develop 
than repress the industrial energies of the country. Deprived of this 
outlet of agricultural produce, the people devoted themselves to other 
and more lucrative employment ; and if we are to give credit to a very 
able and distinguished writer, f Ireland, from the reign of James the 
First, to the rebellion of 1641, had grown considerably in industrial 
wealth and enterprise. Sir John Davies, who was however a flat- 
terer, and considered all things in their bearing on the fame of his 
master, mentions the prosperous state of the country and its abundant 
revenue, which he attributes "to the encouragement given to the 
maritime towns and cities, as well to increase the trade of merchan- 
dise as to cherish mechanical arts." He quaintly adds, that "the 
strings of the Irish harp were all in tune."i We shall see that the 
harmony was speedily disturbed. 

The genius of Strafford was devoted to the creation of manufac- 
tures, and the extension of commerce in Ireland, with a view of in- 
creasing the revenues of Charles the First. But Wentworth when 
he endeavoured to establish the linen trade, attempted to crush the 
woollen manufacture, for reasons which are but too characteristic of 
the policy of England. The woollen was considered the staple trade 
of England, and he supposed that its success in Ireland would inter- 
fere with the prosperity of his own country, and he therefore made 
exertions to destroy it. But whilst he succeeded in promoting the 
linen manufacture, by bringing over experienced Flemings, || and laying 
out considerable sums of money of his own, he failed to depress the 
industry of the people, in working up the material so abundantly and 
admirably supplied by their own country. The linen trade prospered 
— the woollen trade did not decline. 

Very animated descriptions are given of the prosperity of the state 
of manufactures and commerce at the time of the Revolution, by 
which the last Stuart lost a throne he was unfit to fill. Much of these 
eulogies may be exaggerated ; but we may assume, to some extent, a 
wide foundation of truth in their representations, when we find that 
the jealous feeling of England stept in to ruin the rising prosperity of 
that trade in woollens which had survived the enmity of Lord Straf- 
ford. Hutchinson says : — 

" After the restoration, from the time that the acts of settlement 
and explanation had been fully carried into execution, to the year 
1688, Ireland made great advances, and continued for several years in 
a most prosperous condition. § Lands were every where improved ; 

* 8 Eliz. c. 3. 

t Hutchinson's Commercial Restraints, p. 14, Henry Flood said of this work, that if 
there were hut two copies of it extant, he would give one thousand guineas for one. 

% Davies, pp. 1, 193. 

|| The same means have been adopted in our own days in Ulster, and with great success. 

§ Archbishop King, in his State of the Protestants of Ireland, pp. 52, 53, 445, 446. Lord 
Chief Justice Keating's Address to James the Second, and his, Letter to Sir John Temple, 
Ibid. 

The prohibition of the exportation of our cattle to England, though a great, was but a 

3* 



30 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

rents were doubled ; the kingdom abounded with money ; trade flou- 
rished to the envy of our neighbors ; cities increased exceedingly ; 
many places of the kingdom equalled the improvements of England ; 
the king's revenue increased proportionably to the advance of the 
kingdom, which was every day growing, and was well established in 
plenty and wealth ;* manufactures were set on foot in divers parts ; 
the meanest inhabitants were at once enriched and civilized ; and 
this kingdom is then represented to be the most improved and im- 
proving spot of ground in Europe." 

Much of this may be written to produce a telling contrast to the 
coming evils. But whatever prosperity was then enjoyed, is proba- 
bly attributed to the letter of Charles the Second permitting the free 
export of all commodities from Ireland, except those whose exporta- 
tion was forbidden by the Colonial laws — and the exclusion, by the 
Lord Lieutenant and council, of linen and woollen manufactures 
from England and Scotland into Ireland. These measures are due 
to the patriotism of the Duke of Ormonde, in the reign of the second 
Charles. 

It was reserved for the Deliverer to give a blow to the prosperity 
of Ireland, from which, except in the brief interval from '82 to '98, 
she never afterwards recovered. And this blow was given by the 
destruction of the woollen manufacture of the country. The jeal- 
ousy of England was roused by the prosperous state of this great 
branch of national industry. Petitions were poured on William the 
Third, representing the evil effects of permitting the woollen trade 
of Ireland to increase, to the detriment of the staple of English pro- 
duction, f He of course graciously answered, and graciously com- 
plied with the prayers of petitions more degrading to the character 
of a nation, than any which ever yet embodied monstrous selfishness 
and unparalleled immorality. The bill to prevent the exportation of 
woollen manufacture, and to ruin the manufacture, passed the Eng- 
lish Commons in 1697, but did not become law until 1699. It may 
well be asked, what were the people — what was the Parliament of 
Ireland doing in the interval ? The Irish Parliament had made its 
bargain ; and if reproached for permitting the ruin of Irish trade, 
would most probably have pleaded the unworthy set-off of a permis- 
sion to persecute and plunder their Catholic countrymen. 

The effects of this blow became soon visible. War is not so des- 
tructive as restricted industry. War destroys thousands, but does 
not permanently extirpate the principle of society which survives the 
bloody business of the field : but the law that forbids industry, and 

temporary distress ; and in its consequences greatly promoted the general welfare of this 
country. 

* Lord Sydney's words in his speech from the throne, in 1G92, from his own former 
knowledge of this country. Ir. Com. Journ. vol. 2, p. 577. 

t We must not be surprised at this, when we find that at the period of the above oc- 
currence, certain traders in Folkestone and Aldborough, complained of a serious grievance 
suffered by their industry, to the following extent : — They presented mournful petitions, 
stating that they suffered " from Ireland, by the Jrish catching herrings at Waterford and 
Wexford ! ! and sending them to the Straits, and thereby forestalling and ruining petition- 
ers' markets." These impudent fishermen had, as Hutchinson says, the hard lot of having 
motions which were made in their favour, rejected. See Commercial Restraints, p. 126. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 31 

paralyses enterprise, strikes a fatal blow at the very elements of which 
all social union is composed. The first obvious result of English le- 
gislation in this respect, was the self exile of twenty thousand manu- 
facturers, who carried to France and other Continental countries the 
skill which had no market at home, and by the employment of their 
industrial knowledge in those countries, raised up a rival far more 
dangerous to English monopoly than Ireland had ever been. But it 
is not alone to this relinquishment of country, by impoverished and 
oppressed industry, that we must look for the emaciating effects of 
the policy of England. Addresses complaining of the miserable state 
of the country, extend over the entire reigns of Anne and George the 
First. The Irish Parliament was confined to addresses — for, whilst 
the records of their proceedings are but the cries of distress, we find 
no active legislation ; whatever was their will, they had been stript of 
their power by the usurpations of England. In 1728 and 1729, there 
was a great scarcity of corn, and general apprehensions of famine ; 
in 1731, there was a deficiency in the revenue. In 1740, for the second 
time in a few years, a scarcity of provisions was felt. The deaths of 
the people — those unrecorded and silent executions by famine and by 
misery, were frightfully increased beyond the usual proportion — 
manufacturers had no money to buy corn, and the farmers had no 
market for their produce — and we cannot better obtain a true estimate 
of the poverty of the nation, than by the following fact. The na- 
tional debt of Ireland commenced in 1715 ; it was<£16,106 lis. l-2d., 
and increased in a short time to ,£371,312 12s. 2 l-2d. ; and to pay this 
sum which modern extravagance would think a very mean item in the 
budget of a minister, occupied the nation forty years, and exhausted 
all the experiments of struggling bankruptcy, loans, and national 
mendicancy. 

Rapidly and surely did poverty overspread our country. The 
monstrous spectacle was seen of a nation immersed in want, yet with 
a productive soil, a laborious peasantry, a mild climate ; with all the 
means of wealth scattered around, and all the material of thriving 
manufacture, wooing the industry of the hungry and oppressed. 
Without his sin, the people suffered the punishment of the son of 
Jove ; they were condemned to hunger and thirst in the midst of 
plenty; their outstretched hands were stayed by the mandate of 
English avarice, and their parched lips denied the cooling draft by the 
dreadful decree of foreign tyranny. " Whoever travels," said our 
illustrious countryman, " this island, and observes the face of nature, 
or the faces and habits and dwellings of the natives, will hardly think 
himself in a land where law, religion, or common humanity is pro- 
fessed."* English law, and Irish servility, had created the striking 
contrast between the bounty of Nature, and the poverty of Man. 

The want of industry soon produced crime ; and the outbreaking 
of the Whiteboys in 1762, was an indication of that great suffering 
which had been relieved out of the public purse, in the viceroyalty of 
the Duke of Bedford, in 1754, when <£20,000 was voted to stay the 

* Swift's Proposal for the Use of Irish Manufacture ; voL 10, p. 12, Hawkesworth's edit. 



32 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

steps of famine- The employment of the people was suggested as a 
remedy — but the gibbet, as more simple in its stern activity, was 
adopted. In 1771, the revenue was again deficient, and the bounties 
and public works were left unprovided for ; and in the years 1772, 
1773, and 1774, the linen trade, the only remaining manufacture that 
survived the wreck of general prosperity, shared the depression, and 
declined considerably. Yet, with all this want, with utter ruin ap- 
proaching, the large sum of c£l,401,925 was sent abroad to pay 
troops, from the year 1751 to 1778. 

Thus at the period when the American contest attracted the earn- 
est attention of Europe, but most peculiarly of the Irish people, the 
state of the country had reached a state of depression, between 
which and destruction there was scarcely one step to be passed. 

There was one consolation to be derived from contemplating the 
results of the evil policy of government ; those who distributed ruin 
were not without their share of general calamity. The embargo on 
Irish exports, consummated the destruction of the industry of the 
people, and the disasters of government. It was a measure adopted 
contrary to lofty and generous public opinion in both countries. Mr. 
Pery wrote to Sir R. Heron, the English secretary in Ireland, stating 
facts of a most marvellous description, and venturing upon predictions 
which would have been marvellous but that they were fully verified 
by time.* Several Englishmen of principle, Lord Newhaven and 
the Marquis of Rockingham amongst the number, pressed on the 
Parliament of England the propriety of granting to the Irish nation 
the liberty of exporting their produce, with the extraordinary excep- 
tion of their woollens, which formed a principal ingredient. Lord 
"Weymouth, however, resisted so dangerous a concession to the 
claims of Ireland ; and the only compromise which was effected, was 
an Export Bill, with the special exception of woollens and cottons. 
The Bristol merchants, who appear through the whole history of 
English avarice and tyranny, to have been influenced by a policy pre- 
eminently mean, selfish, and grasping — the genuine spirit of paltry 
trade — went so far as to heap insults on their representative, Edmund 
Burke, for supporting the measure. 

The results of this barbarous system can be studied in the letters 
which passed between the Lord Lieutenant and Lord Weymouth. 
The former bitterly complains of the peculiar grievance under which 
the Irish government laboured — " disappointments in respect of 
money." The pauper executive had got a loan of d£20,000 from the 
banking-house of the Messrs. La Touche — it tried again, but the 
fountain was dry ; the prudent money-dealers sent back word, that 
"it was not in their power, though very much in their inclination." * 

Bearing these facts in mind, let us observe the progress of affairs 
in America. By the efforts of the Colonies of England, Irishmen 
were, to a considerable extent, guided and influenced ; and from the 

* Grattan's Life, vol. 1, p. 336. The letters furnished by Mr. Grattan in the life of his 
father, form the best materials of the history of that day. 

t Letter from the Earl of Buckingham to Lord Weymouth, dated from Dublin Castla, 
17th May, 1778. Grattan's Life, vol. 1. p. 327. 



HISTORY OP THE VOLUNTEERS. 33 

analogies of the case of Ireland, and the ease of America, they learned 
to appreciate more deeply, as well the infringements on their rights 
as the only substantial remedy of their grievances. 

The English Parliament, disregarding those principles of the Eng- 
lish Constitution which the Colonists had carried with them to the 
new world, had, in 1765, imposed on the American Colonies, without 
the consent of their local parliaments or councils, a stamp tax. Its 
payment was resisted ; and the tyrannous measure denounced from 
New York to Georgia. In deference to the irritated patriotism of 
the Colonies, the stamp duty was repealed in the following year ; but 
the English Parliament, who, whilst they fled from their own mea- 
sure, were unwilling to relinquish the privileges of unconstitutional 
interference, in 1767, imposed six duties, to be collected in America. 
Five of these duties were repealed — the mixture of shrinking and 
interference was astonishing. But the duty on tea was left unrepealed ; 
and this miserable tax, as Burke said, " shook the pillars of a Com- 
mercial Empire that circled the globe."* 

America stood upon the ancient ways of the British Constitution ; 
she denied that any right existed to tax her in a legislature where she 
was unrepresented ; she appealed as well to the spirit of British law 
as to the precedent the British Minister himself had set in the repeal 
of the Stamp Duty. But stronger measures, and a more intelligible 
mode of reasoning, were adopted by the fiery spirits of New Eng- 
land. Disguised as Mohawk Indians, a crowd of bold young men 
seized upon three chests of duty-paying tea, and plunged the slavish 
luxury into the waters of the Bay of Boston. These were noble 
precedents to teach a nation how freedom may be won, and how 
deserved — they were not forgotten by the Volunteers. 

The Americans had, up to 1775, avoided the last resort of war. 
But a rumour was circulated through the Colonies, that German 
mercenaries — the habitual vicarious butchers of England, who did 
her coarser work — were to be employed against their liberties, and 
they renounced an allegiance which could only be preserved by trea- 
son to their country. They planted the seed which ripened in the 
French Revolution ; and the declaration of Independence by Con- 
gress, on July 6th, 1776, was the declaration of war against old and 
obsolete opinions, systems, and despotisms ; it was the first great 
movement of the world's mind towards popular power. 

It was impossible that an excitable people, like the Irish, suffering 
under analogous wrongs, could have watched the throes of the great 
birth of freedom, without catching some of the noble fire which in- 
flamed their distant brethren. And though " four thousand armed 
negotiators"! were voted by the House of Commons, " to cut the 

* Burke's celebrated speech in 1774, on the American taxation. 

t These were Flood's words. In the outrageous philippic which Grattan pronounced 
against Flood, in 1183, he alluded to the vote of 4000 men to assist against the Colonies, in 
the following style :— " With regard to the liberties of America, which were inseparable 
from ours, I will suppose this gentleman to have been an enemy decided and unreserved ; 
and that he voted against her liberty, and voted, moreover, for an address to send 4000 
Irish troops to cut the throats of the Americans ; that he called these butchers ' armed ne- 
gotiators ;' and stood with a metaphor in his mouth and a bribe in his pocket ; a champion 
against the rights of America, the only hope of Ireland, and the only refuge of the Liberties 



34 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

throats of the Americans," the people shared little of the feeling of 
their government, and proudly pointed to the brigades of Irishmen, 
who fought in the ranks of freedom, as an expiation for the services 
of their mercenary countrymen. Much did they regret, then, the 
early ill-fortune of the Americans. The efforts of the Republicans 
were at first unsuccessful ; defeat followed defeat ; and the victories 
of England promised woe in every form to the conquered. Philadel- 
phia surrendered ; Washington was twice beaten with considerable 
loss ; Howe scoured the banks of the Delaware ; and it was not until 
far in the year 1777, that victory declared for the patriots. But when 
Victory came, she came with a liberal hand ; an entire English army 
under Burgoyne was captured ; Clinton retreated before the Ameri- 
cans ; and to crown the successes of the army of liberty, France de- 
clared herself the ally of the republican government. 

Singular contrast ! England, the boasted friend of freedom, warring 
against the principles her own constitution taught — France, the des- 
pot of centuries, fighting in the ranks of liberty ! 

In this crisis, Ireland, deprived of all means of defence, saw her 
wide extent of coast, left open to the predatory descents of the enemy. 
Her pauper executive and embarrassed legislature, looked on with 
nerveless amazement. Suggestions of all kinds pressed on their dif- 
ficulties, and were rejected for inefficacy or danger. Militia bills, 
and independent companies — troops to be raised ; and all this too, 
whilst they were seeking to borrow money from men who would not 
lend it; whilst they were forced to stop payment of pensions, sala- 
ries, grants, and to throw a world of profligate expectancy into des- 
pair. In this singular position of affairs, an application was made for 
assistance by Belfast. Its inhabitants had experience of a foreign 
descent,* and though they had no reason to blush for their conduct 
on a former occasion, they considered it to be due to their safety, to 
demand from government the fulfilment of the duty of a government, 
the defence of the people. The answer they received was much in 
the spirit of La Touche's reply to their mendicant Lord Lieutenant, 
that though it was very much in the inclination of government, it was 
not in their power to give a single regiment. f Sixty troopers formed 

of mankind." (Select Speeches of Grattan, Duffy's Edit, p. 104.) It is hard to blame 
Flood. He was joined in the vote by some men who afterwards most warmly sympa- 
thized in the triumph of America, and who effected much to imitate her example at home. 

* The first appearance of the spirit of Volunteering occurred in 1760, when Thurot and 
a small band of Frenchmen landed at Cai-rickferg\is, and took the town. The people 
around Belfast flew to arms, and their appearance is thus described by Lord Charlemont : — 
"The appearance of the peasantiy, who had thronged, to its defence, many of whom were 
my own tenants, was singular and formidable. They were drawn up in regular bodies, 
each with his own chosen officers, and formed in martial array j some few with old fire- 
locks, but the greater number armed with what is called in Scotland the Loughaber axe : 
a scythe fixed longitudinally to the end of a long pole — a desperate weapon, and which 
they would have made a desperate use of. Thousands were assembled in a small cir- 
cuit; but these thousands were so thoroughly impressed with the necessity of regularity, 
that the town was perfectly undisturbed by tumult, by riot, or even by drunkenness." 
The expedition ended by the reimbarkation of the greater part of the force ; Flobert, and 
Borne few of the officers and men, were left behind, wounded. 

\ The following is the letter of Sir Richard Heron to Stewart Burke, Esq., Sovereign of 
Belfast:— 

" Dublin Castle, August 14th, X273. -' 

" Sir — My Lord Lieutenant having received information that there is reason to appre. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

the available defence of Ireland, at a time when the armies of Eng- 
land were prisoners in the toils of America, and when the English 
Channel and Irish Sea were swept by the vessels of the enemy! 

It was at this eventful period of public danger and government pros- 
tration, that a new spirit arose in Ireland and became embodied in a 
form of power and organization altogether unequalled in the history of 
modern times. What nobler scene can the eyes of man behold than 
a nation going forth to war ? From the earliest days, when the 
chosen people, armed with the direct sanctions of heaven and fired with 
their manifold wrongs, formed themselves into that great army which 
carried the standard of God through the desert and into the fields of 
Canaan flowing with milk and honey, to the modern eras of glorious 
%var when Greece and Rome planted the ensigns of their victory on the 
shattered remnants of eastern empire ; from the days when Caesar oa 
the fields of Gaul laid the foundation of his imperial power, to that time 
when a greater than Caesar on the same fields erected a more glorious 
fame, mankind has viewed with wondering eyes the mighty forms and 
terrible effects of war.* But more glorious far than aggressive triumph 
— more noble than any unprovoked assault on liberty or adverse empire 
is the union of freemen to defend their native land. Whether it teem 
with the voluptuous beauty of Greece or Italy, and be warmed with an 
unclouded sun, or present the more rugged aspect of those stern hills 
where Circassia still maintains her ancient freedom, the valour that 
unbought goes forth for its protection is the finest form of human 
virtue. It is, indeed, the cheap defence of nations. Now, then, in 
our country — whose fertile plains had been for ages the ensanguined 
scenes of tyranny and internecine war — for the first time a people 
sprung to life, armed, disciplined, united, whose lofty mission was to 
save a country, and create a state. How trade was freed, and how a i 
constitution grew upon the ruins of usurpation ; it is our duty to detail j 
in the annals of the few bright years, during which the Volunteers of j 
Ireland formed the national army of their country. Let the people * 
for whom they are specially designed read these matters — and let 
them also read the account, instructive but ignominious, of their lost 
liberties and forfeited honour. They will learn to cherish the virtues 
by which freedom was acquired — and to avoid the intestine divisions, 

hend that three or four privateers in company, may in a few days make attempts on the 
northern coasts of this kingdom ; by his Excellency's command, I give you the earliest ac- 
count thereof, in order that there may be a careful watch, and immediate intelligence 
given to the inhabitants of Belfast, in case any party from such ships should attempt to 
land. 

"The greatest part of the troops being encamped near Clonmel and Kinsale, his Excel- 
lency can at present send no further military aid to Belfast, than a troop or two of horse, or 
part of a company of invalids, and his Excellency desires you will acquaint me by express, 
whether a troop or two of horse can be properly accommodated in Belfast, so long as it 
may be proper to continue them in that town, in addition to the two troops now there. 

"I have, &c, Richard Heron," 

This is but one of many communications which passed at the time between the govern- 
ment and the authorities of Belfast. In most of them, the former express their satisfaction 
at the spirit of the Volunteer companies then formed or about to be formed ; with no sin- 
cerity, as we shall see presently. 

* " As long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroy- 
ers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most 
«xaJted characters." — Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. 1, p. 9. 



36 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEER3. 

the want of high purpose, and the absence of self-reliance by which 
a corrupt body of patricians were allowed to sell their country to 
foreign despotism.* 



CHAPTER II. 

The Volunteers — Discouragement given to their body by the Government — Return of 
Soldiers from America — Disciplining the Volunteers — Non-Importation Agreements — 
Owen Roe O'Neill's Letters — Policy of Exclusive Dealing — Reviews of the Volunteers — 
Lord Charlemont appointed Commander-in-Chief— Free Trade. 

The people of Belfast had anticipated the answer of the secretary. 
They had seen the vices, and expected the punishment of a senseless, 
profligate, and extravagant government. Remembering what they 
and their fathers had done when a foreign enemy had formerly ap- 
peared at their gates, they assembled together for the defence of the 
country, and in the early part of the year 1779 the townsmen of 
Belfast entered into armed associations for defence against the foreign 
enemy, f 

It was a scene of wild and noble excitement. Men rushed towards 
a common object, with a spirit of generous zeal — crowds thronged 
the public places of resort anxious and resolved — in every assembly of 
the people the topic was the defence of the country — and those who 
twenty years before had obeyed a similar summons of public danger, 
appealed to the memory of their own resistance and a captured enemy. 
But it was not in words, or looks, or boasts, the people dealt; they 
formed themselves into military companies and assumed a posture of 
defence ; and these companies, thus hastily organized, were the armed 
embryo of the Irish Volunteers.:}: 

There was no difficulty in gaining recruits for the service. They 
flocked to the new standard in great numbers and with alacrity. The 
spirit of the people was military, and they saw in this " loyal institu- 
tion" || the means of gratifying an hereditary passion for arms. Whe- 
ther any of the far-seeing amongst them — looking beyond the im- 
mediate and removeable danger of a French invasion — recognised in 
the armed organization of the people, headed and officered by the 
leading men and guided by the leading minds of Ireland, the noble 

* The History of the Rebellion and the Union will form a portion of this series. 

t Historical Collections relative to the Town of Belfast, published in 1817, in Belfast, 
p. 138. 

t There were a great number of independent companies, which cannot properly be 
called Volunteers in the sense of the word as used in this narrative. These independent 
corps were raised to meet the recurring threats of invasion, and other dangers of different 
kinds ; and the oldest regiment of the kind of which I have discovered any trace, was the 
Kilkenny Rangers, a cavalry corps, formed in 1777, at first for the local protection of the 
county against Rapparees and Tories, and continued on the principle of those afterwards 
incorporated. They came up to Dublin to attend some of the great reviews of the Volun- 
teers : their uniform was green and white. 

|| This epithet occurs, singular to say, in one of the basest state papers that was ever 
issued by a government, namely, the Report of the Committee of Secrecy of the Irish 
House of Lords, 1798. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 37 

agent of a great Revolution, is a matter of which we have now no 
means of judging. But the government of the day, with keener in- 
stincts, whilst they concealed their fears under the mask of gratitude 
for the services of the people, trembled at the possible action of an 
armed nation, even whilst the Volunteers counted but a few com- 
panies. Loyal as undoubtedly the institution was — loyal even to the 
prejudices which government must have wished to foster, for one of 
their earliest celebrations was the Battle of the Boyne* — the English 
interest trembled at what to their appalled imagination seemed to be 
the infancy of revolution. Thus, whilst the wretched government, 
unable to discharge its functions, and resigning the defence of the 
country to the virtue and valour of her children, looked on in angry 
amazement at the daily increasing numbers of the Volunteers, their 
training into discipline, their martial array and military celebrations, 
the great officers of the Executive were planning how best they might 
stifle in its birth the warlike spirit of the people. 

(The system of volunteering spread quickly. The few companies 
which in the beginning of the year 1779 had been formed in Belfast, 
soon saw their example followed throughout the kingdomj For in 
May of that year we find, by a letter of Lord Buckinghamshire to 
Lord Weymouth — a document instructively illustrating the fears, and 
baseness, and hypocrisy of government — that companies of Volun- 
teers were forming themselves through the whole island. — 

" Upon receiving official intimation that the enemy meditated an 
attack upon the northern parts of Ireland, the inhabitants of Belfast 
and Carrickfergus, as government could not immediately afford a 
greater force for their protection than about sixty troopers, armed them- 
selves, and by degrees formed themselves into two or three com- 
panies ; the spirit diffused itself into different parts of the kingdom, 
and the numbers became considerable, but in no degree to the 
amount represented. Discouragement has however been given on my 
part as far as might be without offence, at a crisis when the arm and 
good will of every individual might have been wantingf for the de- 
fence of the state."$ Lord Buckinghamshire in another part of the 
same letter, attributes the rapid increase in the ranks of the Volun- 
teers, to an idea that was entertained amongst the people that their 
numbers would conduce to the attainment of political advantages for 
their country. 

All motives conduced to the same end, and that end — the armed 
organization of Ireland — was rapidly approaching. The fire of the 
people and their anxiety to enter the ranks of the national army may 
be judged from the fact, that in September, 1779, but a very short while 
after the original institution, the following was the return of the Vo- 
lunteersll in the counties of Antrim and Down, and in and near Cole- 



* " July 1, 1779. Our three Volunteer companies paraded in their uniform, with orange 
cockades, and fired three vollies with their usual steadiness and regularity, in commemo- 
ration of the Battle of the Boyne." — Historical Collections relative to Belfast, p. 143. 

t At a time when a pauper government was unable to furnish the country with a hun- 
dred men to defend her coasts. 

\ Grattan's Life, vol. 1, p. 348. || See Appendix. 

4 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

Total in the county of Down, . . . 2,241 

Total in the county of Antrim, . . . 1,474 

In and near Coleraine »...'. 210 



3,925 



Of these the great majority were fully equipped and armed — and 
glittered in the gay uniform of the Volunteers.* Some few com- 
panies were, however, unarmed even up to a later period, until the 
pressure on government compelled them to distribute the arms, in- 
tended for the militia, to worthier hands. 

The urgency of defence against a foreign foe soon ceased to be felt. 
The attitude assumed by the people deterred the enemy from ap- 
proaching the shores of Ireland. They saw there a people embodied 
and in arms; officered by the elected gentlemen and leading men of 
the country ; and fired by a spirit it would not be safe to tempt ; and 
the hopes of making any impression by an Irish invasion were laid 
aside for the time. 

But other duties awaited the Volunteers. They stood now upon 
an eminence, to which prudence and courage had raised them, and from 
which they were enabled to look steadily in the face the wants of their 
country and their own great responsibilities. Springing suddenly as 
they did, as though it were from the planted teeth of the serpent, 
they had grown in a moment to the stature of a national army, whilst 
the ancient oppressor of their country was immersed in difficulty and 
subdued by defeat, they saw the reins of power almost falling from 
the nerveless grasp of the Irish government, and they felt that it was 
indeed for them a time of grave responsibility and singular tempta- 
tion. 

But as their organization spread — as district after district, and 
county after county sent forth its armed contingent to the standard of 
the Volunteers, they adopted a system which, whilst it gave dignity 
to their body, was a pledge that no measure of insurrectionary violence 
or agrarian tumult would be supported by the Army of the People. 
They were the offspring of the country ; they had taken up arms to 

* The present writer has had no more difficult branch of his subject, than that connect' 
ed with the uniforms of the Volunteers. There are manuscripts, it is said, in some pri- 
vate libraries of Dublin, in which details are given on the subject of Volunteer costume, 
but from the want of catalogues and classified arrangement, it was impossible to reach 
them ; and the newspapers and books of the day are singularly deficient in details on this, 
or, it may be added, on any subject connected with the Volunteer organization. 

The uniform of the Lawyers' corps was scarlet and blue, their motto, "Pro aris et fa- 
sts ;" the Attorneys' regiment of Volunteers was scarlet and Pomona green ; a corps called 
the Irish Brigade, and composed principally of Catholics, (after the increasing liberality 
of the day had permitted them to become Volunteers,) wore scarlet and white ; other re- 
giments of Irish Brigades wore scarlet faced with green, and their motto was "Vox populi 
suprema lex est ;" the Goldsmiths' corps, commanded by the Duke of Leinster. wore blue, 
faced with scarlet and a professional profusion of gold lace. Altogether, it may be said, 
that there was, either in their mottoes or in their uniform, very little affectation of nation- 
ality. 

In the Appendix I have collected whatever lists of the Volunteers were available. It is 
to be remarked that several of the corps are represented as having been embodied in 
1777 ; but they wei'e for the most part only incorporated for a local or occasional purpose, 
without any view to general organization. All these corps afterwards adopted the princi- 
ples of the national army, and became part of its strength. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 39 

preserve inviolate from the foot of foreign foes their native soil; they 
stood commissioned, not by royal grant, or word, or wish, but by the 
nation's love and pride ; they felt the glory of their mission, and they 
upheld it well. Had they adopted the precedents of their oppressor, 
and used their opportunities as she did hers, the empire of Great Bri- 
tain had ceased in Ireland; and judging them now by the light of our 
fatal experiences, men have often thought they were forbearing over 
much, and had treated England with too generous a regard. But this 
is not fair to the memory of the great and noble spirits of that day. 
Armed with a sudden overwhelming power, they limited their desires 
within the constitution ; they thought — how wrong they were is part 
of our experience — that having achieved for Ireland free institutions, 
and an unrestricted trade, their country might participate the glories 
of Imperial power without the sacrifice of an independent individu- 
ality. To effect these objects — to strike the fetters off the limbs of 
trade and make their legislature omnipotent at home, became the 
ruling principles of the Volunteers. They were not levellers, and 
eschewed all anarchy. Thus, as we have said, they adopted a system 
of officering their army which gave a pledge that no anarchic or re- 
publican idea had taken possession of their thoughts. Reversing the 
usual plans, the old and servile form of military organization, the 
soldiers of the national militia elected their own commanders. Whom 
did they choose ? Whom did this democratic army select to rule their 
councils and direct their power ? — Not the low ambitious — not the 
village vulgar brawler — but the men, who by large possessions, lofty 
character, and better still by virtue and by genius, had given to their 
names a larger patent than nobility. Flood and Grattan, Charlemont 
and Leinster — the chosen men in all the liberal professions — the ora- 
tors who led the patriot party in the Commons — the good, the high, 
the noble ; these were the officers who held unpurchased honours in 
the Volunteers. We may well look back, with mournful pride, 
through the horrid chaos where rebellion and national ruin rule the 
murky night, to this one hour of glory — of power uncorrupted, and 
opportunities unabused. 

The organization of the Volunteers spread like lightning through 
the land. The Protestants of the country thronged the ranks; 
leading noblemen and gentlemen assumed command. — But there was 
one great section of the people, which at this time of peril from foreign 
foe, and weakness of the government, might have been well excused 
if they had stood aloof in cold indifference or moody anger. What had 
the Catholics to hope from any change ? What to them was change 
of dynasty or change of system ? In every benefit, in every grace, 
they stood excepted. They had felt the iron of oppression in their 
souls — they had suffered for their loyalty as for their treasons. De- 
prived of property, and plunged in darkest ignorance, despoiled of rank, 
and power, and privilege, and land, little was left for that unhappy 
people in their own country, but the pursuits of paltriest trade or 
meanest usury. But they waxed great and numerous, and strong in 
persecution ; the masters trembled at the number of their slaves. Yet, 
tortured as they had been during centuries of wrong — debased by 



40 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

ignorance, and beset by foes, it was not in the hour of national uprising 
that this suffering, but gallant race, remembered their hard fate, or 
dreamed of vengeance. Far different feelings and nobler passions 
stirred their souls. They looked with pride upon the glorious pageant 
of their armed countrymen ; they saw in the great movement a bright 
though distant hope, that, when the objects of the Volunteers should 
have been achieved, their rights so long withheld would be awarded to 
their great endurance, and the wrongs so long and ruthlessly inflicted, 
would cease for ever. There is in the dark records of the depravity 
of the government of that day, a singular document, which, while it 
attests the patriotism and zeal of the Catholics, illustrates the base and 
vile spirit which repelled their loyalty and refused their aid. The 
Earl of Tyrone wrote to one of the Beresfords, a member of a grasping 
patrician family which had long ruled the country,* that the Catholics 
in their zeal were full of forming themselves into Independent Compa- 
nies, and had actually begun their organization : but that, seeing the 
variety of consequences which would attend such an event, he had 
found it his duty to stop their movement! Miserable government- 
unable to discharge its first duty of defence, and trembling to depute 
them to the noble and forgiving spirit of a gallant people! — The 
Catholics of Limerick, forbidden the use of arms, subscribed and made 
p, present of d£800 to the treasury of the Volunteers. 

The people assembled, in every barony and county, and adopted 
enthusiastic resolutions to raise Volunteer companies. The movement 
spread from the North, which had the honour of its birth, to the South 
and East, and in the West, more habitually apathetic, the fire of public 
spirit shone brightly out. In Mayo, the high sheriff convened the 
county ; money was subscribed ; several companies were raised, and 
the command was given to Lord Altamont. In Kilkenny five hundred 
stand of arms were distributed amongst the Volunteers ;f several 
districts in the King's County raised corps, varying from three to five 
hundred men ; Lord Charlemont took the command of companies 
raised in Armagh : and in the metropolis of Ireland numerous regi- 
ments were formed by the different professions, and the command was 
given to the representative of the Geraldines. They assumed regi- 
mental uniforms, of which the prevailing colours were green, blue, 
white, and scarlet. From the variety of the costumes of the Volun- 
teers, their appearance in the field was gay and brilliant. Nor was it 
merely by the glittering red and white, or the more national green, 
that the hearts of the thousands who looked upon the army of the 
people were delighted, and their confidence strengthened in the security 
of their homes from foreign invasion. In a short while from their 
taking up the pursuits of war, their ranks presented the steady front 
and firm port of discipline ; the raw levies of enthusiasm, trained by 
experienced men, assumed the aspect of resistless legions ; and the 
country, betrayed by her government, looked with confidence on her 
armed sons led to the field by their statesmen, orators, and nobles. 
Not so, as we have said, did the English interest view this great 

* May 28, 1779. Grattan's Life, p. 352. 
t" Grattan's Life, vol. 1, p. 343. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 41 

uprising. To the adherents of that interest it bore all the appearances 
of revolution ; it loured upon their terrors like a threatening portant 
big with untold dangers; they caballed against the movement in secret; 
they would have whispered it away ; their officials, whilst they 
assumed a demeanour of politeness, used all their endeavours to dis- 
courage the embodying of the people. But it was in vain to attempt 
to stem the torrent. The military spirit of the nation had taken fire ; 
they rushed to the new standards from every quarter; and when 
discipline was added to numbers and to spirit, they grew too strong 
and irresistible for the cabals of the minister. Yet it will surprise 
most readers to learn that even in May, 1779, the Lord Lieutenant 
gravely canvassed the possibility of seizing their arms or preventing 
them from assembling, by the use of military force.* He says, " the 
seizing of their arms would have been a violent expedient, and the 
preventing them from assembling without a military force impractica- 
ble ; for, when the civil magistrate will rarely attempt to seize an 
offender suspected of the roost enormous crimes, and when convicted, 
convey him to the place of execution without soldiers : nay, when in 
many instances persons cannot be put into possession of their property, 
nor being possessed, maintain it without such assistance — there is little 
presumption in asserting, that, unless bodies of troops had been uni- 
versally dispersed, nothing could have been done to effect this. My 
accounts state the number of corps as not exceeding eight thousand 
men, some without arms, and in the whole very few who are liable 
to a suspicion of disaffection." 

The reasoning was cogent and curious; but it is not a little strange 
to find an elaborate essay on felony and dispossession dragged into a 
despatch communicating to the government such evidences of patriot- 
ism and loyalty. However, danger from abroad, and spirit at home 
soon silenced the government ; and they were compelled by strong 
pressure to supply with arms the very men whom they would have 
dispersed by military force, if the requisition of their tyranny abroad, 
and their extravagance and profligacy in Ireland had left them a single 
regiment. 

Meanwhile the numbers of the Volunteers were increasing, and 
their public spirit and loyalty became the subject of panegyric even in 
the legislature of England. The head of the ancient Norman family 
of Clanricarde took the command of the gentlemen and tenantry of 
Galway. They were called the Clanricarde Volunteers, and proposed 
to act as cavalry. The letter of their colonel to the Lord Lieutenant 
is an amusing proof of his eloquence and their spirit. It informs his 
Excellency that should the French or any other enemy presume to 
land or invade the kingdom, Lord Clanricarde engages on the shortest 
notice that he will head a thousand men amongst his friends and 
tenants who will " swim in their own blood in defence of his majesty 
and their native country." The Lord Lieutenant answered in general 
terms, not at all meeting the spirit of the gallant officer. But the blood 
of the De Burghs was on fire, and he pinned the diplomatist to an 

* Letter of Lord Lieutenant to Lord Weymouth, May, 24, 1779. 
4* 



42 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

acceptance or refusal. He writes to the Lord Lieutenant, on the 31st 
May, 1779, thus :— 

" Loughrea, May 31, 1779. 
" My Lord, — I am just honoured with your commands the 28th of May. From the 
knowledge I have of his Majesty's goodness, I have the greatest reason to hope that he ia 
fully persuaded of my attachment to his person and family ; but, my Lord, as I act in a 
public capacity in my present application to your Excellency, 1 beg leave to know, whether 
you are pleased to accept of the services of the Clanricarde Volunteers in the defence of 
this country, should any foreign power invade it. I will, in that case, engage to bring a 
most respectable body of gentlemen, and a powerful number of men, into the field. 

" I have the honour to be, &c. 

" Clanricarde." 

The reply was in the usual tone adopted by the English interest — 
that associations of numbers of armed men formed under their own 
regulations in different parts of the kingdom, could not be justified by 
law, nor would it be proper for his Excellency to give any encour- 
agement or sanction to them. At the same time, by a letter written 
of nearly the same date, he informs the English minister that the idea 
of their numbers conducing to the attainment of political advantages 
had wonderfully swelled the Volunteer ranks ; " a reason which," he 
added with great gravity, " must be considered as alarming, since the 
expediency of any measure for political advantages to Ireland is a suffi- 
cient consideration to secure to that country the full support of government. 

It was at this period that numbers of Irishmen who had been en- 
gaged in the American war returned to their country. They had 
fought against liberty — they had wrestled with its power — but they 
had caught the spirit they could not destroy, and from having been 
the mercenary soldiers of a tjTant, they became the most eloquent 
preachers of the doctrines of liberty, and the most practical agents for 
teaching men how she was best wooed and won. Covered with 
wounds, they had not a scar that did not preach freedom — maimed, 
disabled, and shattered in the cause of oppression, they came back to 
their country filled with the experiences of battle, and stories of suc- 
cessful valour. They told their countrymen, then fully awakened to 
a sense of their wrongs, how the native courage of the colonists, learn- 
ing discipline by defeat, had triumphed over the arms and the glory 
of England ; how the heroes and the armies of the greatest empire in 
the world had been led captive by the valour of the people — they told 
them, in a word, how liberty was achieved in a new world. Greedily 
did the Irish nation devour what appealed so warmly to their ancient 
love of freedom — the conversation of their veteran countrymen was 
sought for with eagerness and listened to with emulative enthusiasm. 
They sighed to do at home what the wounds and words of their friends 
had told them were so well done abroad. But they were not satisfied 
with the tales of war — they asked instruction in the use of arms and 
the discipline of the field. And gladly did the old soldier commu- 
nicate to the young men what he had perfected by his own disastrous 
experience — he who had wielded the arms of oppression now taught 
a better race how to use those of freedom. It was a noble retribution 
to the spirit of injured liberty. Thus, amongst other means, did the 
Volunteers obtain scientific instruction in warlike exercises and dis- 
cipline. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 43 

Mr. Grattan, in his life of his father, states that Mr. Broome, a par- 
ticular friend and intimate of that great man, gave the most valuable 
assistance in training and disciplining the cavalry. Mr. Broome was 
in the dragoons, and his instructions were very valuable ; and obtained 
the thanks of the Volunteers. But they left no means unadopted to 
render their institution something more than a gaudy national pageant ; 
and they succeeded in acquiring a perfection of discipline which re- 
ceived the approbation of the best judges of military tactics of the day, 
as the spirit which bound them together was applauded even by such 
a man as Lord Camden.* 

The Irish people felt that if ever a blow for free trade were to be 
struck — if the restrictions which had destroyed their trade and made 
beggars of their manufacturers were ever to be removed, the time had 
now come. They beheld in every barony and in every county the 
first men in estate, in rank, in acquirement, at the head of hundreds 
of armed and disciplined men ; ruled not by the usual rules of dis- 
cipline, but being a compact military democracy in which the soldiers 
elected, and if needs were, cashiered their officers ; and they observed 
that this striking politico-military phenomenon existed cotempora- 
neously with a government as weak as it was vicious, whose inclina- 
tion to despotism and corruption was only restricted by their imbecil- 
ity and their bankruptcy. On the other hand, they saw their country- 
men reduced from want of trade and manufactures to the lowest pitch 
of misery: they saw that the spirit of English trade was the most 
powerful enemy of Ireland, and that the legislature of England was 
influenced altogether by that spirit; they were maddened by there- 
flection that the provision trade — the manufacture of meat — had been 
taken from them by the embargo and transferred either to English 
speculators or to the enterprise of the German towns. f Reflecting 
thus on the means and the motives for action, they determined on 
adopting a bold measure to retrieve the fortunes of their country, and 
striking the enemy where he was most vulnerable in his selfish inter- 
ests. The people resolved on adopting an agreement not to consume 
the exports of England, and to enter into associations for the exclusive 
use of Irish manufacture. 

* When he accompanied Lord Charlemont to the North, on his going to review the 
Volunteer forces at Belfast, Lord Camden said : " Keep it up — keep it up. England will 
never forgive you." She never did. 

t " On the other hand, the Irish beheld, with grief and dismay, that the northern parts 
of Germany, and other countries adjoining to the Baltic, were with great avidity preparing 
to grasp at that beneficial trade, which was slipping out of their hands. They had already 
begun the experiment; were sparing no industry or expense in procuring proper salt for 
the purpose, and proper persons for instructing them in the art of curing and packing 
their beef, and had even sent some considerable quantities of it to the French market. 
Although these samples could not come in any degree of competition with the Irish beef, 
in point of goodness, yet the attempt, or even the idea, was exceedingly alarming. The 
vast profits which the supply would afford, through the lowness of rents, and the cheap- 
ness of cattle in those countries, would induce great improvements in the articles of feed- 
ing and curing; and there are few ignorant that a branch of trade once lost or transferred, 
is scarcely ever recoverable. To render all these circumstances of loss and apprehension 
the more vexatious and grievous, it was universally said in that country, and not without 
some considerable concurrence both of words and opinions in this, that the source of all 
these mischiefs was nothing more or less than a job, which owed its creation, or at least 
its continuance, merely to the design of throwing immense fortunes into the hands of some 
favourite contractors. Nor was it of any avail, how unfounded this opinion might possibly 



44 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

It was not a question of sordid political economy. They did not 
wait to discuss the doctrines of the economist, or to test their resolves 
by the nice calculations of philosophy. They had heard of, or had 
seen, their own commerce burthened with restrictions by the selfish- 
ness and base dishonesty of England — they had seen a few trading 
towns in England grow great and flourishing at their expense ; they 
had seen the products of their enterprise and industry refused admis- 
sion to the markets of Great Britain and her colonies ; they had 
endured the miseries of a poverty not due to their want of skill, or capi- 
tal, or energy, but produced by the barbarous legislation of their 
oppressor ; and they rightly judged that the best and wisest philosophy 
was to retaliate by excluding, as far as the spirit of their country would 
admit, the manufactures which had grown up on the ruin of their own, 
and proscribing the products of an industry which had flourished by 
their decay. 

An agreement not to use the products of England in this country, 
is one that can never be adopted with any chance of success, except 
on the eve of a grand revolution, when the soul of the nation is stirred 
with great thoughts and capable of a noble abstinence. A country able 
to adopt, and virtuous enough to persist in such a resolution, is secure 
of effecting any other measure which may be needful for her happi- 
ness. The time at which the Irish people thought proper to carry on 
the compact of non-consumption, was one peculiarly well chosen. 
The Volunteers were in arms, and had set the example of using Irish 
manufactures, by clothing their regiments and troops in materials of 
home production. And, better still, the resolutions of their meetings 
had sanctioned the principle, and promised the assistance of the na- 
tional army, to work out its details to the utmost of their power. As- 
sociations for the use of Irish manufacture sprung up in every part of 
the country ; the Volunteers appeared at their reviews and military 
gatherings clothed in dress of native manufacture ; the ladies of the 
country caught the spirit of the day, and gave new force to the argu- 
ments of patriotism, by clothing themselves in the fine textures which 
the skill of their countrymen knew so well how to fabricate. 

The press of Ireland seconded this movement with great power. It 
teemed with productions, many of them from men of great learning 
and acquirements, recommending the non-consumption of English 
goods. The lessons and teaching of the Drapier were revived, and 
repeated from mouth to mouth, and by every pen. Mr. Robert John- 
son, who was afterwards on the Bench, and other men of the same 
class, published letters to this effect. But one of the most spirited 
publications of the day, and one of the ablest pieces of reasoning and 
declamation that ever appeared in the revolutionary literature of any 
country, was a collection of Essays by Pollock.* They were published 
under the name of Owen Roe O'Neill. He looked on the grievances 

be : the effect was the same as if it had been established by the firmest anthority." — 
Doddsley's Annual Register, vol. 22, p. 124. 

It has been said that the historical portion of the Annual Register was written by Edmund 
Burke. 

* These essays or letters will be republished. They may serve another turn yet. They 
are now very scarce. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 45 

of Ireland, like a philosopher and a patriot, and canvassed with singu- 
lar ability, the three measures which were proposed by various parties 
as remedies. These were an union with England — non-consumption 
associations — and legislative freedom. His prophecies, with regard 
to the first, are singular, and though not exactly germane to the im- 
mediate subject, cannot be much out of place in a book treating of the 
legislative independence of Ireland : — 

" The first leading and comprehensive observation upon a union, 
one indeed that makes all others appear almost unnecessary, is that 
by it we lose our own legislative assembly, and take the readiest means 
of destroying the only one that shall remain of the empire. Already, 
God knows, there is little occasion to add to the corruption of the 
British Parliament ! Yet what must we expect, if we pour into it 
such another ' uniform and potent body of corruption ' as has flowed 
from Scotch representatives ! 

" We have now some slender ties upon the fears, at least, of our 
parliament. We should then have none. Our present absentees, 
' men as dependant on the Minister, as they are independant of the 
people,' are not more likely to be incorruptible than the deputies of 
Scotland. ' Upon the ruins of (what remains to us of) national con- 
sequence and public sentiment, we should have a few individuals, in- 
significant in England, engrossing the powers of Ireland, jobbing away 
her interest, never residing with her people, and, of course, ignorant 
of her condition, and unawed by her resentment.' * * * 

" That no representation could essentially serve Ireland, may be 
collected from this ; that her number of deputies being necessarily 
small in proportion to those of England, even if not corrupted, they 
would be overpowered, in every question between the two nations.* * 

"The tyranny which England now indulges against Ireland, con- 
trary to every principle of the constitution, she would then display in 
apparent conformity to it. Even a union could not make her feel for 
Ireland as she does for her own most insignificant village. * * * 

11 We are by nature her rival, and, in some respects, I may even say, 
her superior. Our quota or proportion of taxes must he fixed. Can any 
man then be so bigotted to the idea that political generosity exists, 
and exists in England., as to suppose she would encourage her rival 
much beyond what would enable her to pay that quota of taxes? 
But, allowing England to be generous to us, at present, must she not 
soon hate us with as much cordiality and as much justice, as she now 
does Scotland ? The conduct of the nation and her representatives 
would justify it. — Nations will not return good for evil, however usual 
that may be with individuals! — In this situation, is there a noble 
scheme in agitation for the improvement of manufactures, the opening 
of communications between different parts of this kingdom, the con- 
venience or extension of trade? — Is an inland canal to be cut, a col- 
liery to be promoted, a quay? a mole, or dock to be built — is it wished 
to improve or put in a state of defence any of those harbours which 
open to the world, and have capacity to receive it? — Immediately a 
host of petitions are opposed — or the Minister is threatened with an 
insurrection — perhaps raised by himself— the scheme drops ; — or it is 



46 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

procured by means the most disgraceful or most ruinous. Jobbing is 
seldom gratuitous— compliments must be returned. The empire suf- 
fers. They suffer who receive justice as a favour. At any rate their 
spirit is destroyed, for they feel their dependance, and their impo- 
tence." ******* 

Casting aside all hopes from the Union, Owen Roe O'Neill next 
discusses the utility of the commercial associations. Fully approving 
of the spirit of patriotism which dictated the non-consumption agree- 
ments, he placed little reliance on their perfect efficiency, so long as 
the power of an English parliament, over Ireland, should continue. 
But at the same time that the argument of Pollock was directed to 
the necessity of a Bill of Rights, the eloquence of his declamation, 
and the power of his reasoning, had a material influence on the pub- 
lic mind, and promoted largely the other measures whose efficacy he 
seemed to doubt. He revived the constitutional doctrines of Moly- 
neux and Lucas with a finer genius; and he spoke to an armed na- 
tion, which had heard the words of Grattan and Flood. The Volun- 
teers showed the greatest activity in acting upon the suggestions of 
the press. They held regimental meetings in Dublin, and in the pro- 
vinces, in support of home manufactures, and avowed their determi- 
nation to use no other; at the same time, with expressive language, 
demanding the extension of the commerce of Ireland. 

The terms of the non-importation agreement were not uniform.* 
The following is one which was adopted by the gentry and people of 
Meath : — 

" We, the gentlemen, clergy, and inhabitants of the county of 
Meath, whose names are hereunto subscribed, observing with con- 
cern the distress experienced by persons of every rank in this king- 
dom, but particularly by the manufacturers, on whose employment 
and prosperity depend in a great measure the value of our lands and 
the sufficiency of our revenue, and considering it is a duty we owe to 
ourselves and our fellow-subjects to do everything within the extent 
of our ability, not only to alleviate this distress at present, but to pre- 

* THOLSEL, DUBLIN. 

At a general meeting of the Freemen and Freeholders of the City of Dublin, convened by 
public notice. 

William James, and John Exshaw, High Sheriffs, in the chair. 

The following resolutions, among others, were unanimously agreed to : 

" That we will not from the date hereof, until the grievances of this country shall he re- 
moved, dh-ectly or indirectly import or consume any of the manufactures of Great Britain ; 
nor will we deal with any merchant or shopkeeper, who shall import such manufactures ; 
and that we recommend an adoption of a similar agreement to all our countrymen who 
regard the commerce and constitution of this country. 

'• Resolved unanimously, That we highly applaud the manly and patriotic sentiments of 
the several corps of Merchants, Independent Dublin, Liberty, and Goldsmiths' Volun 
teers, and heartily thank them for their demonstration of zeal and ardour in the cause of 
their country ; and that we shall ever be ready to join with them in defending our rights 
and constitution, and gladly and cheerfully contribute to protect them from prosecu- 
tion or persecution. Signed, JOHN EXSHAW, Sheriff." 

N. B. — This resolution had been preceded, some months before, by similar resolutions 
in Galway and other parts of Ireland ; but the nation could not be considered as having 
generally adopted those sentiments till they were sanctioned by the metropolis.— Barring- 
ton's Rise and Fall, p. 100, Duffy's Edition. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS, 47 

vent it in future, have entered into the following resolutions, as the 
best means to attain this desirable end. 

" Resolved, therefore, That we, our families, and those whom we 
can influence, will, from this day, make use of the manufactures of 
this kingdom only. 

"Resolved, That we consider ourselves as solemnly engaged to ad- 
here to the above resolution, as long as the traders and manufactur- 
ers of this kingdom approve themselves by their conduct worthy of 
liberal encouragement from the public. 

" Resolved, That we will not buy any articles whatsoever from any 
person or persons in Dublin or elsewhere, who shall, after the date 
of these resolutions, be known to purchase, on his own behalf, or dis- 
pose on account of others, or of any goods which are not manufac- 
tured in this kingdom; as we consider those who oppose or evade 
regulations which have been so generally approved of as the only 
method to relieve thousands of their fellow-subjects from extreme 
poverty and misery, as enemies equally to their country and to hu- 
manity. 

" Proposals for supplying one thousand inhabitants of the county 
of Meath with arms and accoutrements, will be received by George 
Lowther, Esq., at Killrue. 

« (Signed) W. Grattan, Sheriff." 

Documents of a similar nature were signed by the leading men in 
Ireland — by such men as Leinster, Charlemont, Flood, Farnham, De 
Vesci, Lanesborough, and Newenham. The spirit of English mo- 
nopoly took alarm, whilst some of the enlightened members of the 
English Legislature, recognising the justice of the retaliatory move- 
ment in Ireland, endeavoured to procure liberal measures of conces- 
sion. Glasgow petitioned against them — Manchester brawled — and 
Bristol was in arms. These towns had been great gainers in the 
Irish trade, yet they were the loudest and most vociferous of the op- 
ponents to the removal of the restrictions. It was, therefore a mat- 
ter of no small satisfaction to those who entered into the non-impor- 
tation and non-consumption agreements, that in effecting a great com- 
mercial and political movement, they would also be enabled to punish 
the ingratitude and avarice of the traders who had so largely profited 
by their discouragement. The feeling of government on the subject 
of non-importation was one of great irritation, and their partizans in 
Parliament did not hesitate to give bitter utterance to their hatred of 
the Volunteers and of the commercial movement. Lord Shelburne, 
in May, 1779, called the Irish army an " enraged mob ;" but the 
phrase was infelicitous, and told only half the truth. They were en- 
raged ; but they were not a mob. They had no one quality of a 
mob. They had discipline — arms — and a military system. Their 
ranks were filled with gentlemen, and officered by nobles. But such 
expressions as Lord Shelburne's were of great advantage. They 
kept clearly, in bold relief, the ancient and irremovable feeling of 
Englishmen and the contemptuous falsehood of their estimate of the 
Irish people. In the same spirit, the organ of government wrote to 
the central authority in England on the subject of the non-importa- 



48 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

tion agreement: — "For some days past, the names of the traders who 
appear by the printed returns of the Custom-House to have imported 
any English goods, have been printed in the Dublin newspaper. This 
is probably calculated for the abominable purpose of drawing the in- 
dignation of the mob upon individuals, and is supposed to be the act 
of the meanest of the faction."'* When the Lord Lieutenant penned 
this paragraph, he did not, assuredly, remember the meanness of the 
manufacturers and traders of his own country, or the measures adop- 
ted by the English Parliament, at their dictation, to crush the trade 
and paralyse the industry of this country. The retaliation was just, 
and no means that could have been adopted could equal the atrocity 
of the conduct of the English towns, to the productive industry of 
Ireland. Englishmen had a Parliament obedient to the dictates of 
the vile spirit of English trade — the Irish people had not as yet estab- 
lished their freedom, or armed themselves with the resistless weapon 
of free institutions. They were obliged to legislate for themselves, 
and were justified by the exigency in adopting any means to enforce 
the national will. It seems strange, that it should be necessary to 
defend the measure of holding up to scorn the traitors who could ex- 
pose in their shops articles of foreign manufacture, every article of 
which was a representative of their country's impoverishment and 
decay. But the English press denounced it as the policy of savages, 
and pointed out the Irish people to the contumely of Europe. At 
the same time, the English manufacturers, ever careless of present 
sacrifices to secure permanent advantages, flooded the country towns 
with the accumulated products of the woollen manufacture, which, 
owing to the war and other causes, had remained in their hands ; they 
offered these goods to the small shopkeepers at the lowest possible 
prices, and desired them to name their own time for payment ; and 
they partially succeeded in inducing many of the low and embarrass- 
ed servitors of trade, through their necessities, and by the seductive 
promise of long credit, to become traitors to the cause of Irish indus- 
try. The Volunteers and the leaders of the movement were equally 
active on their side. The press — the pulpit — and the ball-room were 
enlisted in the cause of native industry. The scientific institutions 
circulated, gratuitously, tracts on the improvement of manufacture — 
on the modes adopted in the Continental manufacturing districts, and 
on the economy of production. f Trade revived ; the manufacturers 
who had thronged the city of Dublin, the ghastly apparitions of de- 
cayed industry, found employment provided for them by the patriot- 
ism and spirit of the country; the proscribed goods of England re- 
mained unsold, or only sold under false colours, by knavish and profli- 
gate retailers; the country enjoyed some of the fruits of freedom, 
before she obtained freedom itself. 

The organization of the Volunteers proceeded rapidly in the year 
1780. Their numbers at the commencement of this year have been 
variously estimated ; and it is difficult to obtain any certainty on the 
subject, amidst the conflicting and most unsatisfactory accounts which 

* Letter of Lord Lieutenant to Lord Weymouth, May, 1779. 

t See a letter signed " Patrick," in the Hibernian Journal. August 14, 1780. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 49 

exist of this great national institution.* They probably reached 
thirty thousand men within the first year of their existence. Their 
discipline had been improving every day; for they omitted no means 
of procuring military instruction. The ties which attached them in 
self-imposed obedience to their officers, and bound ail together in one 
great bond of military union, were those of lofty honour and generous 
patriotism. They present in this great democratic union a contrast 
sufficiently significant to the usual military bodies which had the des- 
tinies, the peace, the lives, and property of Irishmen, committed to 
their mercenary care for so long a period. In the conduct of the lat- 
ter, the coign and livery which ancient legislation had proscribed, too 
often re-appeared in modern forms of military outrage, barbarity, and 
violation. The mischief of committing arms to the custody of the 
basest of mankind, restrained only by the factitious conscience of the 
lash and the halberts, was too often calamitously proved by the con- 
duct of the British soldiery, and, it must be sadly confessed, by the 
Irish yeomanry and militia at, a later period, when the glory of the 
Volunteers had departed, and the vast promise of their confederation 
had been sacrificed by the weakness of their leaders and the cabals 
and the corruption of England. The Volunteers were unpaid; they 
were of the people, the children and champions of the state ; the pre- 
servation of public peace was an object most dear to them, not as a 
specific duty, but as a matter of pride and love ; and therefore the tes- 
timonies of all men, in the Houses of Parliament of England and of 
Ireland, and in the newspapers and political literature of the day, at- 
tribute to the existence of the Volunteers, the profound peace, the 
respect to law, and the regard for property which existed in Ireland 
during their confederation. 

" Such being for five years together the effect of the volunteer sys- 
tem — of the will of the people manifesting itself on the principle of 
universal suffrage — in a word, of democratic ascendancy substituted 
for a mixture of monarchical and aristocratical ascendancy under a 
foreign monarch, and calling itself Protestant Ascendancy because it 
was by Protestant hands that the tyranny was exercised — such being 
the nature of the powerful influence exercised by the body of the peo- 
ple on the conduct of the government — what were the results ? 

" Subversion of the rights of property ? JNo such thing. Subver- 
sion of the constitution ? No such thing. In the constitution of the 
kingdom of Ireland, a change was indeed effected. But even on the 
occasion on which it was effected, numerous as were the authorities, 
without the concurrence of which the change neither was nor could 
have been effected, ample in every case was the applause bestowed 
upon it. Scarcely in any one was an objection made to it — nor has 
so much as the shadow of an objection been raised against it since. 
The only flagrantly bad point removed, all the other points, good and 
bad together, continued as before. 

* There is only one book professing to be a history of the Volunteers, by Wilson. It is 
one of the worst compilations that ever was published, and absolutely contains little or 
nothing on its nominal subject. In truth, the only materials for a narrative of the Volun- 
teers, are the reports of their meetings and resolutions in the papers ; and these are not 
very satisfactory. 
5 



50 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

" Such being the institution — democratic ascendancy — behold its 
fruits : tranquillity, harmony, morality, felicity, unexampled. Such 
as they were — behold another miracle — by the evidence of all parties 
in one voice, their existence was acknowledged. People's men tri- 
umphed in their golden age, and recorded it. Aristocratic Whigs, 
even after they had succeeded in destroying it — in substituting for it 
the iron age — trumpeted it, calling it their own work. So conspicuous 
was it — so incontestible, that not even could the most zealous mon- 
archists and Tories forbear confessing its existence."* — New edition 
of Bentham's Works, Part X., p. 615. 

The year 1780 was one of incessant organization; reviews took 
place throughout all Ireland ; and a great provincial meeting was ap- 
pointed for the November of that year, previous to which in all parts 
of the country the Volunteer corps were reviewed by the command- 
ing officers in each district. The Earl of Belvidere reviewed the 
troops of Westmeath; the Limerick and Clare Volunteers were re- 
viewed by Lord Kingsborough ; the Londonderry by Lord Erne ; 
the Volunteers of the South by Lord Shannon ; those of Wicklow by 
Lord Kingsborough; and the Volunteers of Dublin county and city, 
who had formed themselves into associated corps, by Lord Carysfort, 
Sir Edward Newenham, and other men of rank, patriotism, and for- 
tune. These reviews were attended with every circumstance of 
brilliancy. There was no absence of the pomp of war. The Volun- 
teers had supplied themselves with artillery, tents, and all the requi- 
sites of the field. They had received many presents of ordnance ; 
numerous stands of colours had been presented to them, with no ab- 
sence of ceremony and splendour, by women of the highest station 
nnd figure in the country, whose pride it was to attend the reviews 
in their handsomest equipages and clothed in their gayest attire. f 
But these military shows were not the sports of men who played at 
soldiers — they would have used the arms that glittered in their hands. 
Their ranks were filled with men of well-know r n gallantry — the chosen 
warriors of a people always brave. One can scarcely fancy a nobler 
scene than one of the early meetings of the Volunteers. Delighted 
thousands looked not on a mercenary troop whose arms would be as 
freely used against as for them, the disciplined machines of arbitrary 
will — but on their most virtuous fellow-countrymen, their friends, 
their brothers, their sons; the statesmen whose wisdom w r as to save 
their country, and the orators whose genius had exalted her. 

The Volunteers had, till the middle of the year '80, acted in inde- 
pendent troops and companies, and were only linked together in a 
community of feeling and design. But it soon beeame apparent that 
for any purpose of great and general action — for any grand military 
measure, consolidation was absolutely necessary, and that it would be 
politic to create an united army under the command of one man of 
station, talents, and character. 

* This extract is quoted in the work of an Englishman, Smiles's History of Ireland. It 
is an admirably written book, and forms a most useful assistance for Englishmen in the 
study of our history. 

t Grattan's Life, vol. 2, p. 124. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 51 

The selection fell upon James Caulfield, Earl of Charlemont. He 
was the descendant of an ancient family in Oxfordshire, one of whose 
members, Sir Toby Caulfield, after having served with distinction in 
Spain and the Low Countries, settled here, and received from Eliza- 
beth the barony of Charlemont, in 1620. James, the fifth Baron, who 
was known as the good Lord Charlemont, was raised, in 1665, to the 
dignity of Viscount. The third Viscount, James, left four sons, of 
whom the Earl of Charlemont was the second, and succeeded to the 
titles and property of his father, his elder brother having died young. 
The family of Charlemont was, at its establishment in Ireland, en- 
riched by large grants in Armagh. It was a cheap way of recom- 
pensing those who had served in England, to award to their virtues 
large slices of confiscation in Ireland ; but there are few families, the 
foundation of whose wealth and rank were laid in the plunder of our 
ancestors, who have done more to repay the early evil of their 
beginnings by their virtues and services, than the noble line of 
Charlemont. 

Lord Charlemont travelled much on the Continent. He spent a 
year at the Academy in Turin, where he met the historian Hume, 
from whom, fortunately, he acquired neither the creed of Deism nor 
the practice of falsehood. He visited Greece, the Ionian Isles, and 
Rome. He spent some time in Italy, and saw Egypt. He has writ- 
ten agreeable Journals of his tour ; but the ground is now familiar. 
He returned to Ireland accomplished, affable, aud graceful ; and he 
had the virtue to stay at home, sorely tempted as he was by the asso- 
ciations he had formed in England and abroad. He had been nine 
years away, and returned just as the contest between Primate Stone 
and Henry Boyle was calming down into the disgrace of one and the 
corruption of the other. 

Lord Charlemont's first Irish services were neither splendid nor 
honourable. He was chosen as the negotiator between Boyle and 
the Lord Lieutenant. His duty was to strike a balance between 
what the Irish patriot wanted and the English official would give ; 
and he was eminently successful in eliciting harmony from the jar- 
rings of sordid ambition and Castle economy. But he soon left the 
Castle sphere — though well fitted by taste and feeling to be a courtier, 
it should be with honour — and that was an impossible fact in Ireland. 
Like the Eastern slave, who leaves his shoes at the door before he 
enters, men put aside their honesty and honour as they pass the 
Castle gates. They walked there better without these daily virtues. 
It is said by Hardy, that Lord Charlemont was ignorant of the bargain 
struck between Boyle and the Lord Lieutenant, by which the former 
got a pension ;* but there was enough of profligacy in the conces- 
sions made by both parties, even though money had never changed 
hands between them, to take all glory from the office of negotiator. 
The future General of the Volunteers found fitter work to employ 
him than he could procure at the Castle, and his career from his first 
exploit in diplomacy, was one of active patriotism. In those early 

* Life of Charlemont, vol. 1, p. 93. 



52 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

days he had thought of bringing, by a fictitious suit, the right of 
appeal from the Irish Courts and House of Lords, which had been 
usurped by England, into legal and direct discussion. Illness pre- 
vented the scheme ; but it is plain that Charlemont had not suddenly 
adopted the principles of '82 as an occasional fashion, or as being 
a follower of Grattan and Flood. 

The selection of this nobleman to command the Volunteers, re- 
flected credit on the right of choice which they had established as 
their military rule. His course had been one of consistent virtue : 
and, though an opponent of the Court party, he had been from the 
first highly respected by them. In truth, he enjoyed the regard of 
both parties. The popular faction might have wished him less courtly, 
and the dependents of the Court less honest — but both respected the 
virtues and manly patriotism which shed such lustre upon his rank. 
There could, therefore, be no higher guarantee of the intentions of 
the Volunteers, than their placing Lord Charlemont at their head. 
There were men in Ireland more fiery and with more genius, who 
might have led the army of the people to a nobler fate ; but, choosing 
without the privilege of prophecy, they could not have selected one 
more adapted to do honour to their choice than Lord Charlemont. 

From the time of his election, he was particularly attentive to his 
duties as General-in-Chief. He reviewed the Volunteers in 1780-81, 
and '82, constantly in many parts of Ireland. These reviews were 
very splendid, and at Belfast, five thousand men in a state of superior 
discipline and organization were on the field together. 

It is not necessary to dwell upon the part Lord Charlemont took in 
the controversy of independence. He voted in all the minorities for 
his country, and was seen on her side, even when his brother general, 
the Duke of Leinster, divided against him. And in the great passage 
of Irish freedom — the Declaration of Right — Lord Charlemont sym- 
pathised with and aided the movement. We shall see, at a later pe- 
riod, bow, by the timidity of his character, and his indisposition to 
great changes wrought by bold means, he was induced to take a step 
which ended in the destruction of the Volunteers. 

Lord Charlemont, without extraordinary abilities, without any great 
force of character, achieved a very honourable reputation in our histo- 
ry. He was a centre round which great men revolved — he shone in 
their light. Possessed of great amiability, he bad no meanness. His 
country, not ungrateful, has remembered all his virtues and his ser- 
vices ; it must be said, in a spirit sorrowful and not condemning, that 
she has something to forget. 

Let us now retrace our steps, and going back to the last few months 
of the year 1779, direct our attention to the effect produced upon 
legislation in both countries, by the non-importation agreements, and 
the formidable attitude assumed by the army of Ireland. 

The session of 1779-80 opened with very stormy promise. The 
speech from the Lord Lieutenant contained more than the usual 
quantity of inexplicit falsehood, and diplomatic subterfuge. The ad- 
dress in reply was its echo, or would have been, but that Henry Grat- 
tan, he who was, above all others, the man of his day, moved his 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 53 

celebrated amendment. The speech of the Viceroy had alluded with 
skilful obscurity to certain liberal intentions of the king on the subject 
of trade : but there was no promise for hope to rest upon : it was 
vague and without meaning. This was not what the spirit of the 
hour or the genius of the men would endure. Molyneux, Swift, and 
Lucas would have written, lived, and suffered in vain; vainly would 
the long and tedious teaching of disappointment and betrayal have 
cultivated the Irish people into shrewd and bold hearts and manhood, 
if at this great crisis the leaders of the people had received as true, 
or treated with respect, the courtly falsehoods and baser subterfuge 
of a Viceroy's speech. They felt the time had come to strike with 
mortal blow the whole system of English tyranny, and to give freedom 
and security to the trade and industry of Ireland. 

When the speech was read in the Commons, the English interest 
anxiously scanned the opposition benches, detecting their unusual 
notes of preparation. They saw that something would be done. 'em- 
barrassing to their system and to them ; but they could not anticipate 
the blow that was ready for their heads, or that their fiercest foe 
would be a placeman in their ranks. An address was proposed by 
Sir Robert Deane, a drudge of government, re-echoing, in servility, 
the vague generalities of the speech. Grattan then rose to propose 
his amendment : — 

" That we beseech his majesty to believe that it is with the utmost 
reluctance we presume to approach his royal person with even the 
smallest appearance of dissatisfaction ; but that the distress of this 
kingdom is such as renders it an indispensable duty in us to lay the 
melancholy state of it before his majesty, and to point out what we 
apprehend to be the only effectual means of relief; that the constant 
drain of its cash to supply absentees, and the fetters on its commerce, 
have always been sufficient to prevent this country from becoming 
opulent in its circumstances, but that those branches of trade which 
have hitherto enabled it to struggle with the difficulties it labours un- 
der, have now almost totally failed ; that its commercial credit is sunk, 
all its resources are decaying rapidly, and numbers of its most indus- 
trious inhabitants in danger of perishing for want ; that as long as they 
were able to flatter themselves that the progress of those evils might 
be stopped by their own efforts, they were unwilling to trouble his 
majesty upon the subject of their distress ; but finding that they in- 
crease upon them, notwithstanding all their endeavours, they are at last 
obliged to have recourse to his majesty's benignity and justice, and 
most humbly to acquaint him that, in their opinion, the only effectual 
remedy that can be applied to the sufferings of this kingdom, that can 
either invigorate its credit or support its people, is to open its ports 
for the exportation of all its manufactures ; that it is evident to every 
unprejudiced mind that Great Britain would derive as much benefit 
from this measure as Ireland itself, but that Ireland cannot subsist 
without it , and that it is with the utmost grief they find themselves 
under the necessity of again acquainting his majesty that, unless 
some happy change in the state of its affairs takes place without delay, 
it must inevitably be reduced to remain a burden upon England, in- 
5* 



54 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

stead of increasing its resources, or affording it the assistance which 
its natural affection for that country, and the intimate connection be- 
tween their interests, have always inclined it to offer." 

Grattan's speech in support of the amendment must have been 
badly preserved, for what remains bears no proportion to the magni- 
tude of the interests, or the absorbing nature of the subject. 

To the rage and dismay of government — passions of which une- 
quivocal demonstrations were given on the ministerial benches — when 
Grattan assumed his seat, Hussey Burgh, the prime sergeant, one of 
the most eloquent and fascinating men of the day, an official of gov- 
ernment, a stanch supporter, one to whom, from the spirit of his 
office, patriotism should have been impossible, moved that " we beg 
to represent to his Majesty that it is not by temporary expedients but 
by a free trade alone that this nation is now to be saved from impend- 
ing ruin." This resolution was carried unanimously ; the supporters 
of government saw that it was useless to oppose the spirit of the 
house ; the nation was standing petitioner at their bar for the privi- 
leges of nature, production and consumption ; the Volunteers were 
drawn up through the streets of Dublin, with an intelligible alterna- 
tive hung round the necks of their cannon, "Free trade or ;" 

and the amendment of Henry Grattan, with the improvements of 
Burgh, received on the part of the patriots an exulting support, and 
on the part of the ministers a fearful and angry assent. The day 
after this distinguished success, the addresses of the Lords and Com- 
mons were brought up to the Castle ; the streets from the house to 
the seat of government were lined with the corps of the Dublin Vol- 
unteers under arms, who paid military honours to the favourite leaders ; 
the city was in a tumult of joy and triumph, contrasting not unfa- 
vourably with the rage and despair that hung around the Castle. And 
that no doubt might be entertained of the authors of this important 
movement — that the merit of success should be laid at the right 
door, thanks to the Volunteers were moved and carried in the Lords 
and Commons. The motion in the House of Commons was made 
by Mr. Conolly, the head of the country gentlemen. The Duke of 
Leinster carried the motion through the Lords with only one dissen- 
tient voice, Lord Chancellor Lifford, one of those English lawyers 
who are sent over to Ireland, from time to time, to occupy the high- 
est seats of justice, and enjoy the largest emoluments in the country. 
The Lord Lieutenant, in writing to Lord Weymouth, complains bit- 
terly of these votes ; unanimous expressions as they were of the 
feelings of all classes in the state, they appeared in a most repre- 
hensible light to the Viceroy, who petulantly wrote home his com- 
plaint that the proceeding was occasioned wholly by the Duke of 
Leinster. 

The government quite alive to the fact that the present posture of 
affairs resulted from the power and determination of the Volunteers, 
set on one of their habitual agents to assail them. This was Scott, 
the attorney-general, who afterwards, as Lord Clonmel, was with a 
few monstrous exceptions the most inhuman judge that ever presided 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 55 

in the shambles of Irish justice.* He attacked the Volunteers with 
an habitual vulgar fury — described them by every name which the 
quick invention of a ferocious mind could devise ; and he was sup- 
ported in his philippic by Sir Henry Cavendish, who reminded the 
house that the Independents of the past century commenced by 
seeming moderation, but ended by cutting off the head of the king: men 
might creep into the Volunteers, who might urge them to similar 
dangerous courses. But Grattan repelled the charges against the 
army in which he was a distinguished soldier — and told the legisla- 
ture that the great objects which they sought, could not be obtained 
by the skill, the prudence, or the dexterity of 300 men without the 
spirit and co-operation of 3,000,000. The military associations, he 
said, " caused a fortunate change in the sentiments of this house ; 
they inspired us to ask directly for the greatest object that ever was 
set within the view of Ireland — a free trade ; they inspired the 
Commons ; they auimated the Lords ; and having both houses unan- 
imous in the greatest measure that ever combined a nation, having 
given fire to that union, they carried you, Sir, the people carried you 
proudly on their crest, when you proceeded to deliver to his Excel- 
lency the great requisition." The spirit in the country well replied 
to the spirit within the walls of the house. The Volunteers in- 
structed the representatives to vote the supplies for no longer than 
six months. They now amounted to 50,000 men : and a nobler 
spectacle a nation never looked upon. Possessed of every wonted 
military attribute, disciplined and well-armed, they had other quali- 
ties that are too often absent in military organization. They were 
the army of the people ; their commission included only the duties 
of free-born men to fight for liberty and to defend a country. Most 
of their officers were the highest blood of an ancient and aristocratic 
country — men not alone ennobled by long descent, but. by the high 
qualities of genius, wisdom, and integrity. The soldiers were the 
yeomen of the land, having as definite an interest in her prosperity 
as the highest peer in the service. And all were bound together by 
the deepest attachment to the liberties of Ireland. They had seen 
what they were able to effect — and as concession after concession 
was wrung from power, the bold and sagacious of them determined 
not to rest from their efforts until a free and reformed parliament sat 
within the walls of the senate house, the permanent security and 
guarantee of freedom. But it is no more than a usual passage in the 
history of men and of institutions, that by the weakness and vacilla- 
tions of some among the Volunteers, men of pure and generous 
principle but of narrow and contracted views, their mission was de- 
stroyed, and their glory for ever obscured. 

The question of the supplies came before the house on the 25th 
November, 1779. The patriots had determined to withhold the 
grant, or to limit the duration of the money bill, until free trade was 
yielded by England. But Scott, the Attorney General, endeavoured 
to prove that supplies to pay the interest of the national debt, the ton- 

* See the Leading State Trials of Ireland, in the introduction to the Trials of the Defend- 
ers, for a character of ClonmeL — Mac Nevin's State Trials, p. 29-L 



56 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

tine, and the loans, were not supplies to the crown but for the dis- 
charge of national responsibilities. "How tender," said Grattan, 
"the administration is regarding the monied interests of individuals; 
how little they care to risk the ruin of the nation !" The Attorney 
General moved that the supplies should be granted for two years — 
Mr. French moved an amendment that they should be granted for 
six months. A brilliant debate was the consequence — the war of per- 
sonality, which was always carried on with so much vigour and genius 
in the house, never raged with fiercer or more splendid power — but 
the great oration of the day was delivered by Hussey Burgh. He 
said : — 

" You have but two nights ago declared against new taxes, by a 
majority of 123, and have left the ministers supported only by 47 
votes ; if you now go back and accede to the proposed grant for two 
years, your compliance will add insult to the injuries already done to 
your ill-fated country : you strike a dagger in your own bosom, and 
destroy the fair prospect of commercial hope, because if the minister 
can, in the course of two days, render void the animated spirit and 
patriotic stability of this house, and procure a majority, the British 
minister will treat our applications for free trade with contempt. 
When the interests of the government and the people are contrary, 
they secretly operate against each other ; such a state is but smoth- 
ered war. I shall be a friend alike to the minister and the people, 
according as I find their desires guided by justice ; but at such a cri- 
sis as this the people must be kept in good temper, even to the indul 
gence of their caprices. 

" The usurped authority of a foreign parliament has kept up the 
most wicked laws that a jealous, monopolizing, ungrateful spirit could 
devise, to restrain the bounty of Providence, and enslave a nation, 
whose inhabitants are recorded to be a brave, loyal, and generous peo- 
ple ; by the English code of laws, to answer the most sordid views, 
they have been treated with a savage cruelty ; the words penalty, 
punishment, and Ireland, are synonymous, they are marked in blood 
on the margin of their statutes ;• and, though time may have softened 
the calamities of the nation, the baneful and destructive influence of 
those laws have borne her down to a state Egyptian bondage. The 
English have sowed their laws like serpents' teeth, and they have 
sprung up in armed men."* 

The amendment was carried by 138 to 100 : the triumph of the prin- 
ciples of free-trade was ensured; and the minister acknowledged the 
necessity of precipitately retracing his steps. Who can doubt the 
vast influence the Volunteers exerted in all these proceedings ? On 
the preceding 4th of November — the anniversary of the birth of 
William the Third, one whose name was theretofore and afterwards 
continued to be the watchword of party, not of liberty ; but whose birth 

* Hussey Burgh lost his place, but rose in popular estimation. Meetings were held in 
different parts of the country, to present him with addresses of thanks. The freedom of 
the Corporation of Carrickfergns, and other corporate towns, was given to him in gold 
boxes. The address from the Carrickfergus Corporation was presented by Barry Yelver- 
ton, Recorder of the town. — See Freeman's Journal, January 4th, 1780. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 57 

at that time, only recalled the services he had rendered by the 
dethronement of a tyrant — the Volunteers had taken the opportunity 
of reading to the minister and the parliament a lesson of constitutional 
doctrine around the statue of him, who was, they conceived, the foun- 
der of constitutional liberty. They assembled in College-Green — the 
Dublin Volunteer artillery, commanded by James Napper Tandy, with 
labels bearing the inscription, " Free-trade or speedy revolution," sus- 
pended on the necks of their cannon — the Volunteers of Dublin and 
the vicinity under the orders of the Duke of Leinster. The sides of the 
pedestal on which stood the statue of the Deliverer, were ornamented 
with collections of most significant political reasoning ; and under the 
angry eyes of the executive, such teaching as the following were given 
at once to the governors and the governed. On one side of the pillar 
was inscribed, " Relief to Ireland ;" on another, " a short money bill, 

a free-trade, or else " onathird, " the Volunteers, quinquaginta 

millia juncti, parati pro patria mori ;"* and in front of the statue were 
two cannons bearing an inscription on each, " Free-trade or this." 
The people were assembled in thousands around the Volunteer troops, 
and their enthusiasm re-echoed in deafening applause the thunder of 
the artillery. f It was a scene, productive of commercial and political 
freedom : that the latter was evanescent was not the fault of the in- 
stitution, or lack of spirit ; but divisions, and doubts, and suspicions 
were introduced amongst the body by the exertions of England ; new 
ambitions filled the minds of some ; the force of old ministerial associa- 
tions pressed upon others ; the courtly tendencies and the timid alarms 
of a few of the leading men, led them to sacrifice what they had gained, 
rather than to peril English connexion by nobly seeking unlimited 
freedom. But at the period of which we are writing, the Volunteer 
system was compact and perfect. The wants of Ireland were com- 
mercial and political. She had been made a bankrupt by monopoly, 
and a slave by usurpation. The Volunteers were to give her pros- 
perity and freedom, by unrestricted trade and legislation. And right 
well did they set themselves to their appointed task ; with what suc- 
cess appears from Lord North's Free-trade bill, and Grattan's Decla- 
ration of Right. 

It was appointed unto Lord North to undo the work of William 
the Third, and to take the first step towards restoring the trade to which 
the Deliverer had given the finishing blow. Lord North had great 
experience in obstinate oppression, and not less in the recognition of 
the liberties he had trampled upon. He had braved the genius of 
Chatham in the disastrous campaigns against transalantic freedom ; 

* " Fifty thousand United Irishmen, prepared to die for their country." 
t There was a popular Volunteer march, composed and adapted to a collection of words 
which indicates the spirit and the wants of the day: — 

Was she not a fool, 

When she took of our wool, 

To leave us so much of the 

Leather, the leather? 
It ne'er entered her pate, 
That a sheepskin well beat, 
Would draw a whole nation 

Together, together. 



58 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

the world has read with profit the sequel of his histoiy in that great 
transaction. He had opposed every effort to emancipate the trade of 
Ireland — it is the agreeable duty of an Irish writer to detail the con- 
cessions wrung from him by the arms of the Volunteers, and the 
eloquence and genius of those who led them to victory. On the 13th 
of December, 1779, he introduced into the English legislature three 
propositions : to permit, first, the export of glass ; second, the export 
of woollen goods ; and third, a free-trade with the English settlements 
in America, the West Indies, and Africa. 

In connection with these propositions, Foster, the Speaker of the 
Irish House, and on that occasion the representative of government, 
on the 20th of the same month, moved two resolutions in the Irish 
legislature. 1st, That the exportation of the manufactures of this 
country would tend to relieve her distress. 2nd, That great com- 
mercial benefits would flow from the permission to trade with the 
American, Indian and African settlements. Propositions of very 
manifest truth, but tardily acknowledged by the English and Irish 
governments, whose recognition is obviously attributable to a style of 
political reasoning which will prove any thing that a nation of men 
requires to demonstrate. The propositions of Lord North, and the 
resolutions of Foster, were the basis of the bill which some months 
later gave a free-trade to Ireland ; and for the first time, since William 
the Third destroyed the woollen manufacture, and his English parlia- 
ment laid on restrictions on her productive industry, her people were 
free to use the resources a liberal nature offered them, and which a 
foreign tyrant sealed from their anxious hands. Fortunately, we can 
look back calmly, because it may be that we are not specially interested, 
to these transactions, and we might well suppose that any degree of 
violent change, any sudden and fierce out-break, any bloody unfurling 
of our ancient " Sunburst,"* would have been excusable in a people, 
dwelling amidst great natural abundance, with arms as stout, and 
hearts as willing as ever were joined to create the wealth of nations, 
and yet doomed to want and woe by the jealous monopoly of a rival. 
Such oppression would not have been endured for a year by any but 
a divided people ; but while the war of religion and race was raging, 
trade and wealth easily slipped from the hands of a nation too hotly 
engaged in feud to attend to the interests of their industry. The 
efforts they had made to free their trade were the efforts of slaves — 
petition and remonstrance ; it was not until they demanded free-trade 
with the Volunteer alternative, that England struck. When their 
petitions were presented at the point of the bayonet, f she did not find 
it convenient to refuse them. 

* The standard of Ireland. 

t De Beaumont's Ireland, vol. 1, p. 179; translated by Dr. Taylor. There is an excellent 
chapter on the Volunteers in De Beaumont's book. 

Note to page 76. 
On the 1st, December, 1778, the people of Armagh entered into voluntary armed associa- 
tions, at the head of which were Thomas Prentice, George Murray, and Samuel Maxwell. 
Lord Charlemont took the command January 2nd, 1759. He had at tirst refused, on the 
ground that as the Lord Lieutenant of the county he might be called upon to command 
the militia; but he finally consented.— (Stuart's History of Armagh, p. 557.) The 36th re- 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 59 



CHAPTER III. 

Free Trade — Henry Grattan — Reviews in the North— Dungannon Convention— Ireland 
free— Reform in Parliament— Dublin Convention — Decline of the Volunteers — Estab- 
lishment of Militia. 

The non-importation association, and the spirit of the Volunteers 
triumphed over the policy of England. Lord North, in February, 
1780, introduced his Free-trade bill in a speech, which was the best 
refutation of his former arguments, and the severest condemnation of 
his former conduct. 

The intelligence of the concessions made by that bill — liberty to 
export woollen manufacture, and to trade with the British colonies, was 
received with great joy by the people. But their joy was tempered 
with a wise care for the future, and the greater the conceded advanta- 
ges were, the more did they feel themselves pressed by the insecurity 
of possession. The very magnitude of the gift, taught them with 
greater force the true principles of freedom. They reflected that the 
right which jealous power had respected in its hour of weakness, it 
would trample on with recovered strength. What security had they 
that at some future period, when they had possibly established a 
thriving trade, and expended much labour and money in creating a 
prosperous commerce, there might not arise another William ready to 
gratify the insolent avarice of England, by the destruction of their 
trade and manufactures ? The wisdom of Swift, of Lucas, and of Moly- 
neux, appealed to them in the hour of recovered trade, and pleaded 
strongly for unrecovered liberty. They received a free-trade then, 
not as a gift from bounty, but as a surrendered right from weakened 
power ; and rejoicing at the extent of the benefit, they were neither 
fools nor sycophants ; nor did they compromise their duty to their 
country by a needless excess of gratitude to her frightened oppressor. 
Thus, in the resolutions which record the people's joy, we may find 
the strongest expressions of their determination to effect greater things 

giment of foot were quartered at Armagh, and used to teach the Volunteers the use of 
arms. — (lb. 558.) A troop of Volunteer horse, into which Catholics were admitted, was 
raised at Armagh, 2nd April, 1782 : Lord Charlemont was elected captain. — (lb. 560.) The 
Limerick Volunteers were embodied July. 1778, and received 1000 stand of arms from 
government. — (Ferrar's History of Limerick, p. 135.) The Volunteers of the town of Gal- 
way were embodied 31st May, 1779. Richard Martin of Ballinahinch was their first colo- 
nel. He was deposed on a supposition of being favourable to Government, but was re- 
stored on clearing himself of the disagreeable imputation. — (Hardiman's History of Gal- 
way, p. 189.) 

Note to page 86. 
In June. 1779, the Lord Lieutenant wrote to Lord Weymouth, that he had refused and 
would refuse arms " for the use of the self-created troops and companies in this kingdom :" 
in a month after, (July 23rd,) the same Lord Lieutenant communicated to the minister 
that, by the advice of the Privy Council, he had supplied the Volunteers with part of the 
arms intended for the militia. 

Note to page 97. 
Galway had the honour of having adopted the first non-importation agreement in Ire- 
land.— (Hardiman's History of Galway, p. 189.) The terms of the agreement are found in 
a note in that moet admirable book. 



60 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

than the emancipation of their trade. Every county in Ireland 
addressed its representatives; every corps of Volunteers addressed its 
officers; and the spirit of these effusions may be judged from one, 
selected from amongst many, to which the spirit of the day gave birth. 
The gentlemen of the grand jury and freeholders of the county of 
Monaghan, addressing their representatives, amongst other things, 
said : — 

" While we rejoice in common with the rest of our fellow-subjects, 
at the advantages which Ireland has latterly obtained, and which we 
are fully convinced are attributable to the parental attention of his 
Majesty, the virtue of our parliament, and the spirit of our people ; 
yet, as these advantages are confined to commerce, our satisfaction 
must be limited, lest our rights and privileges should seem to be lost 
in the joy which attends a partial restoration of them. We do affirm 
that no parliament had, has, or of right ought to have, any power or 
authority whatsoever, in this kingdom, except the parliament of Ireland ; 
that no statute has the force of law in this kingdom, unless enacted by 
the king with the consent of the Lords and Commons of the land ; on 
this principle the connexion between Great Britain and Ireland is to be 
founded, and on this principle we trust, not only that it may be ren- 
dered secure and permanent, but that the two kingdoms may become 
strongly united and advantageously circumstanced, as to be enabled to 
oppose with success, the common enemies of the British empire. 
What you have done, we look on as a beginning ; and we trust, that 
the termination of the session will be as beneficial to the constitution, 
as the commencement has been to the commerce of the country." 

These were the sentiments of manly but conditional loyalty, of 
generous love of freedom above even the material benefits of trade, 
which led to the Revolution of '82, and whose diversion into other 
channels after the Volunteers had ceased to exist as a great national 
army, drove so many great and upright men into rebellion and con- 
spiracy. 

The desire of constitutional liberty having once seized upon the 
people, several means of obtaining that object were adopted. In 
parliament, a short Mutiny Bill became a favourite measure. The evils 
of a standing army, the dangers to freedom inseparable from the exist- 
ence within the realm of a large force of armed men, having from its 
very organization no sympathies with the people, were eloquently 
dwelt upon by the leading patriots in the house; magistrates refused 
to billet soldiers under a Mutiny Act, to which they objected on two 
grounds, first, that it was an English act of parliament, and secondly, 
that it was perpetual, and created an armed irresponsible authority 
within the state. The Irish Mutiny Act had only extended to six 
months — it had been returned from England with a change rendering 
it perpetual; thus the legislation might well be called English, and the 
principle despotic. The act was resisted, and it would have remained 
a dead letter, but that the ultimate decision of the matter rested with 
the judges, and it was not thought advisable to resort to their tribunals. 
But the time had arrived when Henry Grattan commenced, in grave 
and noble earnest, the great quarrel of parliamentary liberty. And 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 61 

never was a man more fitted by nature for a great work than he was. 
Swift had written of Irish politics with masterly power — Molyneux 
with considerable learning — and Lucas with homely vigour and honest 
zeal; but in Henry Grattan all the qualities of greatness were com- 
bined. He was a man of a pure spirit and a noble genius. He was an 
accomplished scholar, and a poet ; but his scholarship and his poetry 
gave way to a grand, peculiar, and electric oratory, unsurpassed, pro- 
bably unequalled by the greatest speakers of any age or nation. It was 
argumentative and logical in the highest degree ; but it was also ima- 
ginative and picturesque. Its figures were bold and new — its striking 
peculiarity consisted in the total absence of the usual or the vulgar. In 
its noble flights, in the utter abandonment of genius, there was a 
grandeur, and elegant proportion, a profound wisdom, and a startling 
vehemence which contributed to give to the orator all the weight of 
inspiration. He did, indeed, speak with the authority of an oracle ; 
not, however, obscurely, or with the vague wisdom of ancient vatici- 
nation, but with profound truth and clearness. In a very beautiful 
estimate of the character of our great countryman, by a late writer,* 
three attributes are assigned to Grattan. He was the first Irishman 
who treated of Irish politics on a grand scale, with breadth of view and 
libera] judgment — he was the first Irishman who ministered intellec- 
tually to the national character of his country — he was not only a 
national patriot, he was also a herald of civilization. Other great 
Irishmen there had been in abundance ; others whose sympathies were 
imperial, who with great and brilliant qualities had transferred them- 
selves and their glory to other theatres than Ireland ; and who, like 
Edmund Burke, succeeded so fir in eradicating natural feelings, as to 
exult in the greatness of England as of their "better and adopted 
country." But Grattan's fame is not imperial — it is Irish. His 
genius was of the growth of Ireland, an exquisite realization of those 
high qualities which are claimed for, and generally accorded to our 
countrymen — wit, poetry, eloquence, passion, vehemence. And his 
intellect, unlike that of other distinguished men, rested on the base of 
high moral virtue. Truth, candour, courage, were united with his 
intellectual powers, and with simplicity and tenderness of character, 
to form a perfect man.f Nor was he the less perfect, because the 
keen but not generous criticism of modern writers has discovered, or 
fancies that it has discovered on the ample disk of his glory, some 
trifling spots. In truth, he was our greatest Irishman ; and of the era 
of our greatest glory, he was the presiding, ruling genius. With a 
quick and eager spirit, he possessed a directing wisdom ; what he felt 
to be right, he pursued with impassioned zeal, and though his great 
work, legislative freedom, was only monumental to his glory, it was as 
great a fabric as ever was reared by human genius and wisdom. 

Such was the man who passed through every stage of popular 
affection and hatred ; at one period idolized as a god, at another hunted 

* Introduction to Grattan's Select Speeches, p. xlviii., by Daniel Owen Madden. Esq. 

t In a very extraordinary but very able article in the Dublin Review, September. 1843, 
there is a studied attempt to depreciate the character of Grattan. Supposing, but by no 
means admitting the truth of its statements, it is a poor triumph to snatch flowers from 
such a grave. 

G 



62 HISTORY OP THE VOLUNTEERS, 

like a criminal, he underwent the chance of being deified by the people, 
who afterwards sought to crush him with the punishment of a Sejanus. 
And though he oulived the slandars of his own day, and by a long life 
of generous devotion to his country, gave the lie to contemporary 
hatred ; his memory has not escaped some mistaken, but it is to be 
hoped unintentional calumnies, which the ingenuity of modern criti- 
cism has piled upon a grave that deserves to be guarded with the 
tender and precious love of a nation, whose liberties he achieved, and 
whose fame he increased by unequalled genius and virtue. 

Henry Grattan was the man of his age; he consummated in a few 
years, what Flood, who was a greater statesman, but neither so great 
a man, nor so great an orator, had worked for half a life to effect. 

The 19th of April, 1780, was the day selected by Grattan to crown 
the triumph of the principles of Swift, of Molyneux, and Lucas. 
On that great day, he took possession of the heritage of their wisdom, 
and gave form to their noblest conceptions. Every exertion had 
been made to impede him in his career ; he had been treated as 
a Phaeton rashly meddling with the chariot of the sun ; he was 
described as a madman.* But with wise passion he scanned the 
future, he decided that no time was to be given to the enemies of 
his country, and his assault upon old usurpation, was one full of bril- 
liancy, fire, and wisdom. No greater day, none of more glory ever 
rose upon this country, than that which dawned upon the senate 
house of Ireland, on the 19th of April, ]780. The dull chronicles 
of the time, and the meagre press which then represented popular 
opinion, are filled with details of the circumstances under which Grat- 
tan brought forward his Declaration of Right. They were circum- 
stances certainly unequalled in our history, of military splendour and 
moral triumph. The streets around the Attic temple of legislation 
were thronged with the disciplined numbers of the Volunteers, and 
the impatient multitude of the people. The uniforms of the Irish 
army, the gaudy orange, the brilliant scarlet, and the chaster and more 
national green — turned up with different facings, according to the 
tastes of the various corps — contrasted gaily with the dark back- 
ground of the civilian mass, that watched with eager eyes the extra- 
ordinary scene. Over the heads of the crowd floated the banners of 
the Volunteers, with the watchwords of freedom and political regene- 
ration worked in gold or silver on a ground of blue, green, or white. 
And truly, the issue to be tried within the walls of that magnificent 
building, was one great in its effects, and illustrious from the character 
of the contending parties. It was a trial of right between two great 
nations — but more, it was to be either a precedent of freedom, or an 
argument of usurpation. Much depended on the result, not alone as 
to the present interests, but as to the future destinies of the country ; 
and the great men who were engaged in conducting this controversy 
of liberty, were fully alive to the dignity of their parts, and fully 
competent to the successful discharge of the lofty mission they had 
undertaken. 

Within the walls of the House of Commons, a scene of great in- 
* " Will no one stop that madman Grattan ?'* So said Burke. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 68 

terest presented itself to the eye. The galleries were thronged with 
Women of the first fashion, beautiful, elegantly dressed, and filled with 
animated interest in the anticipated triumphs of an eloquence to which 
the place was sacred. Scattered through the House, were several 
officers of the Volunteers; for a considerable number of the members 
held commissions in that great body. But the chief attractions of the 
House, were those distinguished men who were upon that day to 
make the noblest chapter in the history of Ireland — men celebrated 
beyond those of almost any age for the possession of the highest of 
man's qualities, eloquence, wit, statesmanship, political wisdom, and 
unbounded knowledge. There were to be seen and heard there that 
day, the graceful and eloquent Burgh — the intrepid advocate, the 
consummate orator, the immaculate patriot, John Philpot Curran — 
the wise statesman, Flood — and the founder of Irish liberty, who 
watched it in its cradle, and who followed it to its grave, Grattau. 
Amongst the spectators, were Lifford the Chancellor, whose voice 
had negatived every liberty, and denied every concession — Charle- 
mont, the truest of patriots, but the worst of statesmen — and Fre- 
derick, the Earl of Bristol and the Bishop of Deny, whose coronet 
and mitre could not keep down the ambition of a tribune, nor con- 
ceal the finest qualities of a demagogue. All eyes were turned to 
Grattan. He, not lightly and without consideration, but after much 
forecast, care, and anxious thought, having undertaken his great duty, 
thus described its effects : — 

"Along the banks of that river, amid the groves and bowers of 
Swift and Vanessa,* I grew convinced that I was right; arguments 
unanswerable came to my mind, and what I then prepared confirmed 
me in my determination to persevere ; a great spirit arose among the 
people, and the speech which I delivered afterwards in the House, 
communicated its fire and impelled them on ; the country caught the 
flame, and it rapidly extended. I was supported by eighteen counties, 
by the grand jury addresses, and the resolutions of the Volunteers ; I 
stood upon that ground, and was determined never to yield. I brought 
on the question on the 19th of April, 1780. That was a great day 
for Ireland — that day gave her liberty. 

After a speech of consummate power, in which he imparted to the 
doctrines of freedom a more spiritual cast than they had yet assumed 
in Ireland, he moved his three resolutions. 1st, Thai his most excel- 
lent Majesty, by and with the consent of the Lords and Commons of 
Ireland, are the only power competent to enact laws to bind Ireland. 
2nd, That the Crown of Ireland is, and ought to be inseparably an- 
nexed to the Crown of Great Britain. 3rd, That Great Britain and 
Ireland are inseparably united under one Sovereign, by the common 
and indissoluble ties of interest, loyalty, and freedom. His resolu- 
tions were seconded by Robert Stewart, the father of the man who, 
of all others, was most active in destroying the great fabric of freedom, 
which Henry Grattan commenced upon that day to rear. He was 
opposed by Foster and Fitzgibbon ; and to show how completely 

* At Cellbridge Abbey, the scene of the love of the Dean and Mies Vanhomrigh, 



64 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

Irish freedom was the child of arms, the latter attacked the Vo1un= 
teers as a giddy faction, which dealt in violence and clamour. He 
felt that Grattan was, indeed, fortified by the resolutions of the armed 
citizens, and accordingly was liberal of invective against them. Yet, 
Fitzgibbon represented himself as an enemy to the usurpations of 
England. It was singular, that on this occasion, Flood was opposed to 
bringing forward the question of Irish liberty. He thought that the 
time of England's distress was an improper one at which to urge the 
rights of Ireland. Modern patriotism has decided that Ireland's best 
opportunity is the hour of England's greatest embarrassment. There 
is a great deal of chivalry, but probably little wisdom in the generous 
abstinence of tin oppressed — there is no safe postponement in the 
assertion of freedom. Ninety-nine members voted for Grattan's reso- 
lutions ; but by a compromise, which is difficult enough to under- 
stand, there was no entry on the journals, and thus the principle re- 
ceived conveniently but not formally the sanction of the legislature. 
This was something — the constitutional doctrines of Molyneux, 
Swift, and Lucas, triumphed over the habitual corruption and servil- 
ity of the parliament, over the intrigues of the minister, and the pre- 
judices of the Monarch. For it was well known, that so averse was 
the king of England to the liberties of Ireland, so little had he learned 
from the disasters of America, that he instructed his minister to pre- 
vent the transmission to England, of any bill or parliamentary docu- 
ment containing the assertion of the principles of legislative indepen- 
dence. But this was a task beyond the powers of the Viceroy. Free- 
dom spoke loudly ; she should be heard, and was. 

The concessions of Lord North, and the triumph of Grattan, com- 
pelled the people and the parliament to an onward movement. If the 
minister expected that by yielding a free trade, which the same power 
that bestowed might take away, he was allaying the virtuous ferment 
of the nation, he was much deceived. Their success in extracting 
the freedom of exporting and importing fired them with the high am- 
bition of obtaining a perfect political liberty, and Grattan moved his 
resolutions of Right, in obedience to the dictates of his own wisdom, 
and to the loud demands of the country. But they were not satisfied 
with the acquisition of commercial freedom, or the formal sanction of 
the legislature to the principles of free parliaments ; they determined 
to take the control of the army into their hands, by limiting the 
Mutiny Bill. They reflected that internal peace was preserved, and 
a complete defence against foreign aggression ensured by the voluntary- 
military association of the country ; and it appeared a gross and un- 
necessary violation of the spirit of national liberty to give to the gov- 
ernment an unrestricted discretion over a standing army. But it was 
a greater violation of the new principles which had gained ground in 
Ireland, that the army raised for the defence of the country was not 
governed by laws made here, but by the Mutiny Bill of England. 
The House of Commons, however, to the great indignation of the 
nation, adopted the English Mutiny Act, which was perpetual, by a 
majority of 52. But the decision of the legislature was inoperative 
where the magistrates refused to execute the provisions of the Act. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 65 

They would not commit persons brought before them for desertion, 
but in every way lent their authority to defeat the operation of Eng- 
lish legislation. Gentlemen declared in the house, that they would 
not, as jurors, magistrates, or in any other capacity, permit the British 
Mutiny Act to be enforced. The retainers of government were afraid 
that the army would be dissolved ; the Lord Lieutenant was anxious 
to allow an Irish limited Mutiny Bill to pass ; but the dogged and 
unteachable obstinacy of the king persisted in opposing it by every 
means. He considered that permitting an Irish bill to pass, whilst an 
English bill was in existence, was a virtual alteration of the constitu- 
tion, as it rested on the convenient basis of dependence on England ; 
and he vainly imagined that by opposing the bill, and insisting on 
carrying out the provisions of the English act, he would stay the pop- 
ular will, on the important; and engrossing subject of legislative inde- 
pendence. But Gervase Parker Bushe, a man of superior talents 
and patriotism, introduced his bill and carried it by a great majority. 
It was sent to England, and again returned with an alteration making 
it perpetual. The house was appalled ; its best and bravest spirits 
stood aghast — and even Burgh declared that "all was over; that 
Ireland was borrne down, and that it was not possible for her to resist 
the tyranny of Great Britain." But the spirit of the Volunteers 
neither faltered nor drooped. On them, and on them alone, rested 
the protection of the country from the despotism of England. Grat- 
tan had virtually cast upon them the honourable duty of rescuing the 
sinking liberties of Ireland. He asked indignantly, shall these things 
be done, whilst the Volunteers were daily reviewing and parading ? 
Aud they acted on the hint. With increased activity they set about 
renewing and completing their organization. They raised Lord 
Charlemont to the dignity of Commander-in-Chief, and decided on a 
series of general reviews through Ireland. The feeling in Dublin was 
unequivocally expressed, at a quarterly meeting of the Dublin Vol- 
unteers, held at the Eagle Tavern in Eustace street, over which the 
Duke of Leinster presided, by the following resolutions : — 

" Resolved, That Great Britain and Ireland are, and ought to be 
inseparably connected, by being under the dominion of the same king, 
and enjoying equal liberty and similar constitutions. 

" That it is the duty of every good citizen to maintain the connec- 
tion of the two countries, and the freedom and independence of this 
kingdom. 

" That the King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland only are compe- 
tent to make laws, binding the subjects of this realm ; and that we 
will not obey, or give operation to any laws, save only those enacted 
by the King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland, whose rights and 
privileges, jointly and severally we are determined to support with 
our lives and fortunes. 

** Signed, by order, 

"Francis Davis, Sec." 

Lord Charlemont, in replying to the address communicating to 
them his election as Commander-in-Chief, states with so much clear- 
6* 



66 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

ness and perspicuity the position occupied by the Volunteers, the 
services they had rendered, and the spirit which animated them, that 
it is here presented in full as a perfect vindication of " that illustrious, 
adored, and abused body of men."* 

Gentlemen — You have conferred on me an honour of a very new and distinguished 
nature, — to be appointed, without any solicitation on my part, the re vie wing-general of an 
independent army, raised by no other call than that of public virtue. An army which costs 
nothing to the State, and has produced every thing to the nation, is what no other country 
has it in her power to bestow. Honoured by such a delegation, I obeyed it with cheerful- 
ness. The inducement was irresistible ; I felt it the duty of every subject to forget impe- 
diments which would have stood in the way of a similar attempt in any other cause. 

I see with unspeakable pleasure the progress of your discipline, and the increase of your 
associations; the indefatigable, steady, and" extraordinary exertions, to which I have been 
a witness, afford a sufficient proof that, in the formation of an army, public spirit, a shame 
of being outdone, and the ambition to excel, will supply the place of reward, and punish- 
ment — can levy an army, and bring it to perfection. 

The pleasure I feel is increased, when I reflect that your associations are not the fashion 
of a day, but the settled purpose and durable principle of the people ; from whence I fore- 
see, that the advantages lately acquired will be ascertained and established, and that solid 
and permanent strength will be added to the empire. 

I entirely agree in the sentiment you express with regard to the exclusive authority of 
the legislature of this kingdom. I agree also in the expediency of making the assertion ; 
it is no more than the law' will warrant, and the real friends of both nations subscribe. 
I have the honour to be, gentlemen, 

Your most obliged, faithful, and obedient humble servant, 

July 15, 1780. Charlemont. 

The provincial reviews which followed the election of Lord Char- 
lemont, were intended to convey significantly to the minister the rea- 
diness of an armed nation to second the propositions of their leaders 
in parliament. Lord Charlemont visited Belfast to review the Ulster 
regiments, and was attended by Sir Annesley Stewart and Grattan as 
his Aide-de-Camps. He was met at Hillsborough by Mr. Dobbs, 
Mr. Hamilton, and Mr. Stewart, afterwards the Marquis of London- 
derry. His arrival at Belfast on the 11th of July was announced by 
a salute of seven guns from the artillery, which was answered by the 
ships in the harbour, and the three Belfast companies were drawn up 
to receive him. On the 12th the several companies paraded at nine 
in the morning, and marched to the field selected for the review about 
a mile and a half from the town. The account of this review, as 
fully illustrating the nature of these matters, 1 have extracted nearly 
verbatim from contemporary sources, conceiving that the readers of 
this narrative will thus obtain a clearer notion than from any discrip- 
tion by the present writer. 

The field selected for the Review extends near half an English mile 
in length, and is intersected by a rivulet, on the west side of which 
the line was formed. The line consisted of 1400 men, divided into 
four battalions. The remaining body, consisting of nearly the same 
number, was distributed around the field to keep the ground clear. 
The spectators occupied a hill, which rises with a gentle ascent from 
the field, in such a manner that 50,000 persons of both sexes were 
delighted with a complete view of whatever was done, without con- 
fusion or danger. On the most central part of the hill there were 
boxes erected, which accommodated near a thousand persons with 
seats. The general was received by the discharge of cannon, and 

* Curran. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 67 

passed along the line, which from the choice of the men, the uniform- 
ity of their dress, and the perfection of their appointments in every 
particular, was no less a subject of wonder than exultation, to those 
who examined it most critically. The performance of the men did 
not belie their appearance. They executed their motions with stea- 
diness, their firings with exactness — and whether they advanced in 
line, formed, or reduced columns, or marched in divisions, by bat- 
talions, and companies, they equally exceeded the most sanguine hopes 
of their most decided friends. When the common firings, manoeuvres 
and evolutions were over, a mock engagement was executed, in which 
the four battalions who had hitherto remained spectators, were to 
attack and defeat those already reviewed. The plan was admirably 
adapted to the nature of the ground. 

The attack was made from the opposite side of the river to that 
where the line stood ; here the ground, swelling into a hill, exhibited 
the troops formed for the attack, at the same time with those to be at- 
tacked, in the most picturesque point of view. The movements of 
the attacking troops, the well directed and well supported fire on both 
sides, the fording the river, and passing the bridge, the forming in 
line after passing the river, the manoeuvres to outflank the enemy, 
the partial retreat of the yielding army, and the final sucess of a well- 
planned scheme of attack, altogether exhibited as perfect an image of 
war as can well be conceived. The spectators, as well as the soldiers, 
for a moment seemed to be possessed by the ardour, the hopes, and 
fears, which attend a real action. This added much to the spirit and 
effect ; it luckily added nothing to the danger. It is difficult to say 
which called most for admiration, the spectacle, or the spectators? 
Three thousand men in arms, steady, uniform, obedient, breathing 
the spirit of loyalty and liberty ! or thirty thousand spectators, build- 
ing their hopes of peace and security on the skill and activity display- 
ed by their neighbours, friends, and children, in the field ; obliged to 
admire those whom they had always loved; and entitled to commend 
the very persons whose merit reflected honour on themselves! In 
that vast multitude not a man disturbed the general harmony, by any 
act of indecency or violence. At seven o'clock in the evening the 
troops marched back to town, after having been nine hours under arms. 

The 13th, the troops marched again to the field, when those who 
had kept the lines the preceding day passed in review before the gene- 
ral ; and in the engagement which succeeded, were attacked and 
routed by those battalions which they had before attacked and de- 
feated. The merit of the two days was equal, but the concourse of 
people on the last was vastly greater. Among the persons of dis- 
tinction present was my Lord Camden, who seemed to be affected 
with the same pleasure which possessed every friend to the house of 
Hanover, and to those principles which that illustrious house was 
called over to assert. They saw before them a body of men, ready 
to spill the last drop of their blood in maintaining the dignity and in- 
dependence of the crown, and liberties of the empire.* 

* Belfast Politics j History of Belfast ; and several local newspapers. The troops re- 
viewed were as follows :— 



68 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

Singular misrepresentations were circulated about this period on 
the subject of the available force of the Volunteers. And as will be 
always the case, where the money of government can command the 
venal crew of writers, the most elaborate falsehood and the most in- 
sulting ridicule were poured upon the heads of those by whose exer- 
tions the national cause was so nobly maintained. In Lloyd's Eve- 
ning Post, an article appeared on the 7th of July, stating that the 
numbers of the Volunteers had been monstrously exaggerated ; that 
no call could bring into the field twenty thousand men — that persons 
of all ages were enrolled and put on paper — that every gentleman be- 
longed to two, and most of them to five or six different corps, and 
that by this ubiquity and divisibility of persons, the muster rolls of 
the companies were swelled. Doubtlessly, there was some exaggera- 
tion in the representation of the numbers occasionally made: but a 
competent authority commenting on this article, states, that at this 
time there were 95,000 effective men ready to take the field.* Al- 
lowing a little for exaggeration, and comparing this statement with 
the representations in the letters of the Lord Lieutenant to the Eng- 
lish Secretary of State, and those made at the time in parliament, 
we may conclude that there were, at the lowest computation, 50,000 
Volunteers armed and disciplined within a year of their first embodi- 
ment. Barrington says there were eighty thousand. Take any of 
these statements, and it will appear that a powerful army existed at 
this time in Ireland, cotemporaneously with the army of the govern- 
ment, under its own military system, with its officers, banners, mot- 
toes, and fired with a principle of its own. It was an interesting — 
it might have been a glorious juncture — but prudence on the one side, 
and fear upon the other, preserved the English dominion in Ireland. 
The conduct of the officials to the Volunteers was elaborately polite — 
they caballed against them in private, and extolled their virtue in pub- 
lic — and one incident shows that they had not the courage, where 
they had the will, to strike. A troop of horse in the king's service, 
met at right angles on Essex-bridge, with some Volunteer artillery, 
commanded by Lord Altamont. The position was embarrassing — 

FIRST BRIGADK. 

First Battalion Banks, commander - - 302 

Second Saunders - - - - 311 

Third P. Stewart 336 

Fourth Colonel Dawson 306 

Total - - - 1255 

SECOND BRIGADE. 

First Battalion Colonel Stewart - - - 406 

Second Colonel Brownlow - - - 328 

Third Brown 339 

Fourth Major M-Manus 373 

Total - - . 1446 

Two Brass Field-pieces, Six-pounders, of Belfast- Train .... 32 

Newry Horse - - - . 30 

General Knox's Troop - . . 25 

Grand Total - • 2788 
* Freeman's Journal, July 18, 1780. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 69 

both parties continued to advance — a collision appeared inevitable. 
Which party was "to go to the wall ?" Lord Altamont, with a spi- 
rit worthy of his name and country, ordered his men to advance with 
bayonets inclined ready to defend their line ; but the genius of pru- 
dence prevailed with the English officer, who halted his troop and 
allowed the Volunteers to march past his humbled legion.* 

It is now equally painful and useless to speculate on the results 
which might have sprung from the shedding of one drop of Irish 
blood on that strange occasion. It would make a rare chapter in the 
history of things which might have been ; but etiquette was never 
waived with more political and permanent advantage than by the gen- 
tleman who commanded the soldiers of the government that day. 
The circumstances attracted general attention, and served to illustrate 
fully the relative position occupied by two armies in the same king- 
dom, embodied under principles so widely different and so naturally 
hostile. Nor were the proceedings of the Volunteers likely to allay 
the alarms of government. The officers who had been present at one 
of the provincial reviews had adopted resolutions which were ap- 
proved of by several other corps, and which propounded a code of 
politics which must have alarmed government not a little. The par- 
liament had chosen to invade the liberty of the press, and to direct 
the prosecution of the printer of some stringent resolutions, adopted 
by the Merchants' corps of Volunteers, August 17th, at the Royal 
Exchange, to be proceeded with. Some of the more violent members 
denounced these resolutions as "false, scandalous, and libellous ;" but 
they went no further than wreaking their anger in denunciation and 
abuse. Whereupon, the northern corps adopted the resolutions al- 
ready referred to, and which were highly condemnatory of the pro- 
ceedings of parliament on the subject of the press. f They denounced 
the adoption by the legislature of the altered Mutiny Bill, which sub- 
stantially deprived the country of that immediate and effectual control 
over the army, which they considered as necessary to the freedom 
of Great Britain and Ireland. They asserted that the influence of 
the crown was increasing and ought to be diminished. They express- 
ed the firm determination of the northern regiments to persevere in 

* Barrington gives a graphic account of this transaction ; but there are other authorities 
for the statement in the text, 
t These resolutions received the sanction of the following coi-ps : — 

Oriel First Volunteers 
Oriel Second, do. 

Tullyhappy, do. 

Lisdrumhure, do. 

Tyrone Ditches and Acton, do. 
Clare, do. 

Armagh First, do. 

Lislooney, do. 

Sheepbridge, do. 

Ratbfriland, do. 

Banbridge. do. 

Lisburn Fusileers 
Rakenny True Blues 
Newry Troop of Rangers 
Newry First Volunteers 
Newry Third, do. 



Captain Francis Evans. 
Captain Michael Wright. 
Captain James Dawson. 
Captain John Ingram. 
Major Francis Dobbs. 
Captain Alex. Patton. 
Captain Samuel Maxwell. 
Captain Harris. 
Captain William Gordon. 
Captain Samuel Barber. 
Captain James Law. 
Captain W. Todd Jones. 
Secretary James Deane. 
Captain Thomas Benson. 
Captain Joseph Pollock. 
Captain David BelL 



70 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

the use of arms, and to recommend the same resolution to their 
brethren in every part of the country, and they promise that the 
Volunteers will undergo any toil or labour, to prevent the necessity 
of submitting to the perpetual establishment of martial law. 

At the same period the provinces determined on a great review, to 
take place in the May of the following year, 1781, previous to which, 
at a meeting held at the Royal Exchange on the 10th of November, 
the following resolutions were adopted unanimously by a number of 
the Volunteer corps.* 

" Resolved unanimously, — That, preparatory to a provincial re- 
view, it will be expedient to have three reviews, at three of the most 
convenient places in said province. 

" That the first of the said reviews be held at Dublin, on Tuesday, 
the 5th of June next ; and it is recommended that the second be held 
at Bellew's-town, in the county of Meath, on the 1st of July next ; 
and the third, at Carlow, on the 1st of August. 

" That deputies from such corps as choose to attend the first of 
said reviews, do meet at the Royal Exchange, Dublin, the 2nd of 
February next, at one o'clock, to appoint a reviewing general, and an 
exercising officer, and to transact such other business as shall be 
necessary." 

It was fortunate for the reputation of the Volunteers, and for the 
purpose of establishing their fidelity to the original principle of their 
body, that in the summer of 1781, in the very heat of their anxious 
pursuit of liberty, the shores of Ireland were again threatened with 
invasion. America was lost — the trade in the Channel was menaced 
by the fleets of the enemy — the vessels which went between England 
and Ireland were placed under the protection of convoys — thirty -four 
sail of the combined fleet were in the Channel and hovered around 
the southern coast of Ireland. Again the Volunteers stood forward 
and offered their services to protect the country. The offer was ac- 
cepted, because it was not safe to refuse it ; but it was accepted in 
the same ungracious spirit in which government had treated the body 
since its first institution. The Lord Lieutenant's reply was civil, gen- 
eralizing, and cold, and not such as might be justly expected at a time 
when a hundred thousand armed men, in whose hands the liberties 
of Ireland and the supremacy of England were placed, came forward 
and tendered themselves as a bulwark against an expected enemy. 
The delegates of 125 corps of Volunteers, all of them men of rank 
and character, waited on the Lord Lieutenant with offers of service 
" in such manner as shall be thought necessary for the safety and pro- 

* The following regiments and troops sent deputies to this meeting : — 
(Colonel Hayes in the chair.) County Dublin Light Dragoons ; Rathdown Light Dra- 
goons ; Rathdown Carbineers ; Dublin Light Horse ; Union Light Dragoons ; Cavalry of 
Arlington Legion ; Independent Wicklow Horse ; Meath Light Dragoons ; Curragh Ran- 
gers ; Kilkenny Rangers ; Naas Rangers ; Naas Light Infantry ; Ralph's Dale Grenadiers ; 
Skreen Volunteers ; Slane, Duleek, Drogheda, and Dundalk corps of Infantry ; Rathdown 
Infantry, county of Dublin ; Rathdown Infantry, county of Wicklow ; Independent Wick- 
low Foresters; Rockingham Volunteers; Talbotstown Invincibles; Dunlavin Independ- 
ents ; Aldborough Legion ; Wexford Independents ; Longford Infantry ; Newcastle and 
Donore Union Volunteers ; South Coolock ; North Coolock Volunteers ; Upper Cross Fu- 
sileer3; Dublin Volunteers; Goldsmiths', Lawyers', Merchants', Liberty, and Independent 
Dublin Volunteers. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 71 

tection of the kingdom." In reply, the Lord Lieutenant said, " I 
have ever placed the most unbounded confidence in the loyalty and 
attachment of all his Majesty's subjects in this kingdom to his Ma- 
jesty's person and government ; and I receive with particular plea- 
sure these early and spirited offers of service, of which I shall think it 
my duty to avail myself, in the fullest extent, if either the events of 
war or further intelligence should make it expedient to have recourse 
to them." It is singular, that in addressing the delegates of 125 corps 
of Volunteers, the word Volunteer does not occur; and the same 
delicacy, with regard to the armed protectors of the country, is ob- 
servable in almost all the private despatches and public documents of 
the weak and unprincipled government of the day.* 

If the success of the first attempt at obtaining a Bill of Right im- 
pelled the Volunteers to active measures, it was not without a corres- 
ponding, but a wonderfully different effect, upon government. The 
despatches of Lord Buckingham to Lord North, are evidences of a 
system of bribery, so general and so profuse, that nothing could bear 
comparison with it, but the worse corruption by which the Union 
was carried. Between September 8th, 1780, and November 19th of 
the same year, the Lord Lieutenant forwarded several despatches to 
the English minister, in which he recommends over one hundred 
men of rank and fortune, and some of their wives, to rewards for past 
services, or to bribes for prospective services. Sir Robert Deane, an 
uniform and laborious drudge, impeded by no conscience and bur- 
thened by no principle, who, as his viceregal eulogist remarks, always 
with firm friends supported government and never suggested a diffi- 
culty, was recommended for a peerage. Several other men with sim- 
ilar services to parade, with just the same degree of conscience or 
principle, had their claims for degraded honour allowed by the Lord 
Lieutenant. f In such a way were the functions of government then 

* At a meeting of the Belfast Volunteers, held in Belfast, 10th September, 1781, the fol- 
lowing resolutions were adopted : — 

Resolved unanimously, That in the present alarming crisis of public affairs, when a hos- 
tile fleet is hovering upon our coasts, we deem it necessary to put ourselves immediately 
in such a condition as may enable us, should occasion require, to take the field with expe- 
dition and effect. 

Ordered, That the Treasurer do, with all possible despatch, provide camp equipage suf- 
ficient for the whole company, with 10,000 ball cartridge, and every other requisite that 
may appear necessary for the above purpose. 

t The sources of patrician honours in Ireland, it is much to be regretted, are very im- 
pure and tainted. From this censure must of course be excepted the ancient aristocracy 
of the land, in whose veins still runs an honourable stream, uncontaminated by the impu- 
rity of the Cromwellian, or Williamite, or Union creation. The successive creations in 
Cromwell's and William's time, and at the Union, deepen in infamy as they approach our 
own days. The parties recommended for honours in Lord Buckingham's profligate des- 
patches, some of whose names are inserted in this note, have different qualifications : one 
is poor, another who is rich has poor relations. There is no political profligate, however 
wealthy or embarrassed, that is not recommended for promotion or pay, in his own per- 
son or in that of some convenient relative. Amongst the rest, Lords Mountcashel, Ennis- 
killen, Carlow, and Farnham, are recommended for earldoms. In the general recom- 
mendations are the names of James Chrigue Ponsonby, Charles Henry Cooke, PYancia 
Bernard Beamish, Ponsonby Tottenham, James Somerville, William Caulfield, Thomas 
Nesbitt, Sir Boyle Roche, Dame Jane Heron, and other honourable persons. The follow- 
ing is curious ; it is in a letter to Lord Hillsborough from the Lord Lieutenant : — 

" With respect to the noblemen and gentlemen whose requests have not succeeded, I 
must say that no man can see the inconvenience of increasing the number of peers more 
forcibly than myself, but the recommendations of many of those persons submitted to his 



72 HISTORY OP THE VOLUNTEERS. 

discharged. Lord Buckingham, who endeavoured to suppress the 
Volunteers by every pretence, by cabals and intrigue — whose whole 
career was one, the aim of which was the destruction of liberty and 
the suppression of all efforts to raise the condition of this country, has 
(fortunately for the instruction of posterity) left under his own base 
hand the evidence of his turpitude and the corruption of his govern- 
ment. His despatches in these two months (September and October, 
1780,) are extant, and should be rendered familiar reading to all those 
who are disposed to trust the integrity and promises of English states- 
men.* 

But it was in vain that the profuse fountains of corruption were let 
loose upon the parliament. It is true they did their work within the 
walls ; and the nation and its legislature stood in direct opposition. 
Indeed, the people came to look upon the parliament as its only en- 
emy ; but, even in the house, there were some men who were above 
all bribe, and unattainable by any influence. Grattan and Flood were 
still there to stem the tide of oppression and corruption ; and they, 
with other able men, assailed the enemy in every quarter. Bradstreefc 
brought in a bill for a Habeas Corpus, Ireland never having enjoyed 
that great protection ; but he was defeated by the venal majority of 
placemen, whose presence in the House of Commons rendered it a 
mockery of representation. Grattan moved for liberty to introduce a 
Mutiny Bill. Flood was hurt, and justly, that this, which had been 
a favourite measure of his, had been taken out of his hands. The 
seeds of a rivalry, which afterwards proved destructive to the liberties 
of Ireland, had been sown, and were too surely ripening in the hearts 
of these distinguished men. Grattan's motion was supported by all 
the eminent men, who were his fellow-workmen in the great labour 
of constitutional liberty ; but " the brood that gathered on the golden 
wheels of influence, the hirelings of prostitution," were too numerous, 
and leave was refused to bring in his bill by a majority of fifty-six. 
Upon the Volunteers, however, his reasonings were not lost. They 
had employed the whole year in consolidating their power and com- 
pleting their organization — day by day their numbers were increasing 
— their aspect was more threatening — and their language was bolder. 
And what was of great value in rendering their attitude more noble 
and imposing, they had, with few exceptions, adopted a more liberal 
way of treating their Catholic fellow-countrymen. They had admit- 
ted them to their ranks, and had advocated their claims to legislative 
indulgence. There were, indeed, a few, and happily only a few, 
corps, in which intolerance and ancient bigotry were still preserved. 

Majesty for that konour, arose from engagements taken up at the press of the mo- 
ment, TO SECURE QUESTIONS UPON WHICH THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT WERE VERY 

particularly anxious. My sentiments cannot but be the same with respect to the 
Privy Council and pensions, and I had not contracted any absolute engagements of recom- 
mendation either to peerage or pension, till difficulties arose which necessarily occasioned 
so much and so forcibly communicated anxiety in his Majesty's Cabinet, that I must have 
been culpable in neglecting any possible means of securing a majority in the House of Com,' 
mons. Mr. Townshend was particularly recommended to me by Lord Shannon for a 
seat in the Privy Council, and I have reason to think his lordship is extremely anxious for 
his success." 

* These despatches occupy from p. ] 63 to 177 of the second volume of Mr. Grattan's 
valuable biography of his illustrious father. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 78 

An instance of this occurred in connexion with Gardiner's Catholic 
Relief Bill. The Sligo Volunteers, commanded by Mr. Wynne, ad- 
dressed their colonel to use his efforts to defeat the measure. Their 
premises were the old and obsolete bigotries, which in that day of na- 
tional greatness and virtue, had been nearly exploded ; they advanced 
the theory of ascendancy whilst they professed to be the soldiers of 
liberty ; and their example may be justly held up as a warning to 
those who imagine that freedom admits exceptions or can co-exist 
with religious intolerance. The conduct of the Sligo Volunteers is 
admirably rebuked, and the contrast of their professions and their in- 
tolerance delineated with great skill and severity in a series of letters 
in the Freeman's Journal of the day, beginning with the date of the 
l'Jth January, 1782. 

Whilst the patriots in the commons were waging a parliamentary 
war for constitutional liberty, and during the whole course of the 
year 1781, the Volunteers were engaged in a series of splendid pro- 
vincial reviews in every part of Ireland. The regiments were fully 
accoutred with all the camp equipage, and the furniture of the sol- 
dier. Belfast took the lead. Indeed the spirit of volunteering was 
no where more conspicuous than in the Ulster plantation — armed 
liberty walked most boldly among the scenes of former confiscation. 
It was a retribution to the spirit of freedom, which the descendants 
of those who had grown rich on former plunder, were glad to pay. 
The review at Belfast lasted three days ; sixty thousand spectators 
were present, and some of the Dublin corps of Volunteer artillery 
had marched to the North to take part in the review. Lord Charle- 
mont had been again elected Reviewing General, and had again paid 
the tribute of his admiration to the services of the national army. 
He said, " I behold my country fearless of invasion, formidable to her ^ 
enemies, respected by England, and an object of veneration to all Eu- 
rope. In this unhappy period of general confusion, I behold, under 
the influence of your arms, internal tranquillity restored, the due exe- 
cution of the laws firmly established, commerce released from those 
unworthy chains by which she has been so long and so unjustly 
bound, and constitutional freedom emerging from that dark abyss into 
which she had been plunged by lawless and absurd oppression on the 
one hand, and by folly and corruption on the other." Woe on those 
by whom a system, whose results are thus given, was destroyed ; and 
pity that he who could so eloquently describe and keenly feel the ben- 
efits of a noble institution, so much lacked firmness in his own con- 
victions, as to have permitted it to fall asunder like a rope of sand ! 

Yelverton's motion for a committee on Poyning's law was lost by a 
majority of 139 to 37. The resistance of the English interest to 
any inquiry on the subject of the legislative rights of Ireland was vig- 
orous, and for a long time successful. It required, to overcome and 
utterly destroy the strength of the government opposition, that some 
measure of extraordinary vigour should be adopted by the patriot 
party. It was reserved for the Volunteers — the armed champions of j 
liberty, ready for revolution as the alternative of constitutional free- J 
dom — to effect this important object. And history is not conversant 
7 



74 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

with a step more brilliant and astonishing than that which they now 
adopted. They had long marched towards a common end indeed, 
but without co-operation. Their efforts were great and energetic, 
but not simultaneous and combined. The defect was remedied by 
the Dungannon Convention. An armed people speaking by delegation, 
their valour and their wisdom represented in a warlike parliament, 
with a hundred thousand swords ready to work the will of their 
chosen delegates was a phenomenon which struck terror to the 
heart of England. 

On the 28th of December, 1781, the officers and delegates of the 
Ulster first regiment, commanded by Lord Charlemont, assembled at 
Belfast to take into consideration the state of the country and the 
prospects of the national cause. Considering what little attention the 
corrupt majority of the House of Commons had paid to the con- 
stitutional rights of Ireland, they invited the Volunteer regiments of 
Ulster to assume the functions virtually abdicated by parliament, and 
to send delegates to deliberate on the alarming situation of public af- 
fairs. They fixed upon the 15th February, 1782, for the intended 
convention, and Dungannon as the theatre of the warlike delegation. 

Dungannon is the chief town of the county of Tyrone. It is seated 
on an eminence looking over Lough Neagh. A castle of Hugh 
O'Neill, the last great dynast of that noble house, had been built on 
the declivity where the modern town was raised, and on the same 
hill numerous ancient edifices of piety had stood.* It was intended 
that a pyramid commemorative of the Convention should have been 
erected on the hill ; but the results of that brilliant assembly were too 
short-lived. The pyramid would have perpetuated a splendid failure, 
and have been the enduring monument of a glory that passed away 
too quickly. It was wise to have left unerected the memorial of 
short-lived liberty. 

Of the resolutions which were prepared for the adoption of the 
military delegates, the first was composed by Grattan and the second 
by Flood. Mr. Dobbs was just about to start for the convention when 
Grattan, the unchanging friend of the Roman Catholics, thrust into 
his custody the resolution in their favour, which afterwards passed at 
Dungannon, with only two dissenting intolerant voices ; and, as Mr. 
Grattan says, he went the harbinger of peace, and returned the herald 
of liberty. But both the peace and the liberty were of brief duration. 

On the 15th February, 1782, the delegates met. There is no 
similar assembly recorded in history, whether we consider the impor- 
tance of the subject of their deliberations, the power they possessed, 
or the moderation with which they used it. They were the repre- 
sentatives of thirty thousand armed men ; they had full credentials to 
deliberate and to decide for a great army ; their voice would have 
called a nation to war, and thrown two great countries into desperate 
collision. Had they chosen that mode of action, which many amongst 
them might have secretly thought the path of wisdom, as the path ot 

* Camden's Britannia, vol. 3, p. 636. When Hugh was preparing for war on Elizabeth, 
he imported great quantities of lead, as if for the purpose of rooting his castle, but in reality 
for bullets. — Stuart's Armagh, 268. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 75 

honour, the result on the destinies of England would have been peri- 
lous indeed. 

We cannot doubt the issue of a war. A national army composed 
of the flower of a bold and valiant people, treading their native and 
familiar soil, fighting for home and liberty, commanded by the most 
distinguished men in the country, numerous and disciplined, and im- 
patient for the field; no mercenary soldiers whose mean incentive was 
pay, and plunder, and rapine, and hereditary hatred, could have with- 
stood their glorious onslaught ! A thousand memories of glory or of 
suffering — old and honourable traditions — and the new ardour for 
liberty would have fired the soldiers of the land and made their arms 
invincible. But other, and perhaps wiser, councils ruled the leaders 
of the Volunteers, whose issue is well known. 

The church of Dungannon was chosen for the convention of the 
delegates. On the memorable 15th February, 1782, the representa- 
tives of the regiments of Ulster — one hundred and forty-three corps 
— marched to the sacred place of meeting two and two, dressed in their 
various uniforms and fully armed. Deeply they felt the great respon- 
sibilities which had been committed to their prudence and courage ; 
but they were equal to their task, and had not lightly pledged their 
faith to a trustful country. The aspect of the church, the temple of 
religion, in which nevertheless no grander ceremony was ever per- 
formed, was imposing, or, it might be said, sublime. Never, on that 
hill where ancient piety had fixed its seat, was a nobler offering made 
to God than this, when two hundred of the elected warriors of a 
people assembled in His tabernacle, to lay the deep foundations of a 
nation's liberty. Colonel Irwiiva gentleman of rank, a man, firm and 
cautious, of undoubted>eoTrrage but great prudence, presided as 
chairman. The following resolutions were then passed : — 

" Whereas, it has been asserted that Volunteers, as such, cannot 
with propriety debate, o.r publish their opinions on political subjects, 
or on the conduct of parliament or political men. 

" Resolved, unanimously, That a citizen by learning the use of arms 
does not abandon any of his civil rights. 

" Resolved, unanimously, That a claim of any body of men, other 
than the King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland, to make laws to bind 
this kingdom, is unconstitutional, illegal, and a grievance. 

" Resolved, with one dissenting voice only, That the powers exer- 
cised by the privy councils of both kingdoms, under, or under colour, 
or pretence of, the law of Poyning's, are unconstitutional, and a 
grievance. 

"Resolved, unanimously, That the ports of this country are by 
right open to all foreign countries not at war with the King ; and that 
any burden thereupon, or obstruction thereto, save only by the Parlia- 
ment of Ireland, are unconstitutional, illegal, and a grievance. 

" Resolved, with one dissenting voice only, That a Mutiny Bill not 
limited in point of duration, from session to session, is unconstitu- 
tional, and a grievance. 

" Resolved, unanimously, That the independence of judges is 
equally essential to the impartial administration of justice in Ireland 
7* 



76 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

as in England, and that the refusal or delay of this right to Ireland, 
makes a distinction where there should be no distinction, may excite 
jealousy where perfect union should prevail, and is in itself unconsti- 
tutional and a grievance. 

" Resolved, with eleven dissenting voices only, That it is our de- 
cided and unalterable determination to seek a redress of these griev- 
ances, and we pledge ourselves to each other and to our country, as 
freeholders, fellow-citizens, and men of honour, that we will, at every 
ensuing election, support those only who have supported and will 
support us therein, and that we will use all constitutional means to 
make such our pursuit of redress speedy and effectual. 

" Resolved, with one dissenting voice only, That the right honour- 
able and honourable the Minority in parliament, who have supported 
these our constitutional rights, are entitled to our most grateful thanks, 
and that the annexed address be signed by the chairman, and pub- 
lished with these resolutions. 

" Resolved, unanimously, That four members from each county 
of the province of Ulster, eleven to be a quorum, be and are hereby 
appointed a committee, till the next general meeting, to act for the 
Volunteer corps here represented, and, as occasion shall require, to 
call general meetings of the province, viz. : — 

Lord Viscount Enniskillen, Major Charles DufFen, 

Col. Mervyn Archdall, Capt. John Harvey, 

Col. William Irvine, Capt. Robert Campbell, 

Col. Robt. M'Clintock, Capt. Joseph Pollock, 

Col. John Ferguson, Capt. Waddel Cunningham, 

Col. John Montgomery, Capt. Francis Evans, 

Col. Charles Leslie, Capt. John Cope, 

Col. Francis Lucas, Capt. James Dawson, 

Col. Thos. M. Jones, Capt. James Acheson, 

Col. James Hamilton, Capt. Daniel Eccles, 

Col. Andrew Thomson, Capt. Thomas Dickson, 

Lieut.-Col. C. Nesbitt, Capt. David Bell, 

Lieut.-Col. A. Stewart, Capt. John Coulson, 

Major James Patterson, Capt. Robert Black, 

Major Francis Dobbs, Rev. Wm. Crawford, 

Major James M'Clintock, Mr. Robert Thompson. 

M Resolved, unanimously, That said committee do appoint nine of 
their members to be a committee in Dublin, in order to communicate 
with such other Volunteer associations in the other provinces as may 
think proper to come to similar resolutions, and to deliberate with 
them on the most constitutional means of carrying them into effect. 

" In consequence of the above resolution, the committee have ap- 
pointed the following gentlemen for said committee, three to be a 
quorum, viz : — 

Col. Mervyn Archdall, Capt. Francis Evans, 

Col. William Irvine, Capt. James Dawson, 

Col. John Montgomery, Capt. Joseph Pollock, 

Col. Thomas M. Jones, Mr. Robert Thompson, 

Major Francis Dobbs. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 77 

" Resolved, unanimously, That the committee be, and are hereby 
instructed to call a general meeting of the province, within twelve 
months from this day, or in fourteen days after the dissolution of the 
present parliament, should such an event sooner take place. 

" Resolved, unanimously, That the court of Portugal have acted 
towards this kingdom, being a part of the British Empire, in such a 
manner as to call upon us to declare, and pledge ourselves to each 
other, that we will not consume any wine of the growth of Portugal, 
and that we will, to the extent of our influence, prevent the use of 
said wine, save and except the wine at present in this kingdom, until 
such time as our exports shall be received in the kingdom of Portugal, 
as the manufactures of part of the British empire. 

"Resolved, with twodissenting voices only to this and the following 
resolution, That we hold the right of private judgment, in matters of 
religion, to be equally sacred in others as ourselves. 

" Resolved, therefore, That, as men and as Irishmen, as Christians 
and as Protestants, we rejoice in the relaxation of the penal laws 
against our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, and that we conceive the 
measure to be fraught with the happiest consequences to the union and 
prosperity of the inhabitants of Ireland." 

Some formal resolutions followed of thanks to Lord Charlemont, to 
Colonel Dawson, who had been active in getting up the Convention, 
and to Colonel Irwin. The meeting terminated by the adoption of an 
address to the patriot minorities in the Lords and Commons, remark- 
able for its comprehensive brevity and admirable succinct eloquence : — 

" My Lords and Gentlemen. — We thank you for your noble 
and spirited, though hitherto ineffectual efforts, in defence of the 
great constitutional and commercial rights of your country. Go on. 
The almost unanimous voice of the people is with you ; and in a free 
country the voice of the people must prevail. We know our duty to 
our Sovereign, and are loyal. We know our duty to ourselves, and 
are resolved to be free. We seek for our rights, and no more than 
our rights ; and, in so just a pursuit, we should doubt the being of a 
Providence if we doubted of success. 

" Signed by order, 

" William Irvine, Chairman." 

Such were the proceedings at Dungannon. All Ireland adopted the 
resolutions ; and meetings were held in every county formally to accept 
the exposition of the public mind which the Volunteers of Ulster had 
given. The freeholders of each county, and the grand juries adopted 
the resolutions. 

The delegates of Connaught met in pursuance of the requisition of 
Lord Clanricarde ; the delegates of Munster assembled at Cork under 
the presidency of Lord Kingsborough, and the delegates of Leinster 
at Dublin under that of Colonel Henry Flood. 

It was in vain that the government renewed its old cabals, or made 
overt resistance to the progress of the Dungannon movement. The 
example of the North was followed in every quarter. And what is 
peculiarly worthy of notice in the history of the day is this, that there 



78 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

was no diversity of opinion amongst the armed battalions in the differ- 
ent parts of the country. Such division of opinion, especially on the 
subject of the Catholics, might naturally have been expected ; but the 
result was one of great and singular unanimity on the important topics 
which agitated the public mind. The Dungannon resolutions consti- 
tute the charter of Irish freedom, embracing all the points necessary 
for the perfect independence of the country, legislative freedom, con- 
trol over the army, religious equality, and freedom of trade. They 
are the summary of the political requisitions of the patriot party in the 
parliament for which they had been struggling since the days of Mo- 
lyneux, for which it was vain to struggle until an armed force was 
ready to take the field in their behalf. And no one can read the 
history of this great Convention without feeling that it was virtually a 
declaration of war, with the alternative of full concession of all the 
points of the charter of liberty. The Dungannon delegates were 
empowered by the nation, speaking through her armed citizens, to 
make terms or to enforce her rights ; a hundred thousand swords 
were ready to obey their commands. England could not have brought 
into the field one-half that number ; and the rights of Ireland were 
virtually declared on the 15th of February. It was a marvellous 
moderation which contented itself with constitutional liberty in a 
political connection with England, and subjection to her monarch ; it 
would not have required another regiment to have struck off the last 
link of subjugation and to have established the national liberty of Ire- 
land on a wider basis than any upon which it ever stood. 

In the meantime, and whilst general liberty was approaching towards 
its triumph, toleration to the Roman Catholics was making large and 
important strides. The declaration of the Dungannon delegates, so 
general and so impressive, being the opinion of the whole armed dele- 
gation of Ulster with but two inglorious exceptions, had a very great 
, effect through Ireland J It was unfortunate for the subsequent career 
of the Volunteers thatrthe principles which their armed representa- 
tives propounded at Dungannon, were not adopted by some of their 
leading minds. — The seeds of ruin lay deep in the intolerant exception 
of the Catholics from the general rule of liberty. It was unwise, it 
I was ungracious, it was impoliticTJ Flood and Charlemont would have 
' raised a lofty temple to freedomTbut would not have permitted the 
great preponderant majority of the nation to enter its gates, nay, even 
" to inscribe their names upon the entablature."* But, though some 
of the distinguished officers of the Volunteers would have thus with- 
held the blessings of liberty from their fellow-countrymen, it is to be 
borne in mind — and principally because much argument has been 
based upon the concessions granted since the Union by the united 
legislature to the Catholics — that the principles of enlightened libe- 
rality made a wonderfully rapid progress in our native parliament 
during the era of its glory. 

Mr. Gardiner's Catholic Relief Bill was introduced on the 15th of 
February, the same day on which the Dungannon Convention met in 

* Wolfe Tone, 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 79 

the church of Dungannon. Fitzgibbon, afterwards Lord Clare, en- 
deavoured to defeat the measure by suggesting that it repealed the act 
of settlement, and disturbed Protestant titles. A good deal of alarm 
was created by his opinion, and time was taken to inquire into its 
soundness. On examination it was considered bad, and the House 
went into committee on the bill on the 20th of February, 1782. The 
measure proposed to concede to the Catholics, 1st, the enjoyment of 
property; 2dly, the free exercise of their religion; 3dly, the rights of 
education; 4thly, of marriage; and 5thly, of carrying arms. Flood 
supported the bill, but ungraciously laboured to establish a distinction 
between the rights of property and the rights of power. He said, — 
" Though I would extend toleration to the Roman Catholics, yet I 
would not wish to make a change in the state, or enfeeble the govern- 
ment." This was a large measure, and after having undergone seve- 
ral modifications, it became law, during the viceroyalty of the Duke 
of Portland and the administration of the Whigs. Grattan, as might 
be expected, gave it his unqualified support. 4i I give my consent to 
the clause," said he, speaking of that which extended to the Catholics 
the right to hold property, and which was opposed by Mr. St. George 
and Mr. Wynne,* in its principle, extent, and boldness; "I give my 
consent to it as the most likely means of obtaining a victory over the 
prejudices of Catholics and over our own ; I give my consent to it 
because I would not keep two millions of my fellow-subjects in a 
state of Slavery, and because, as the mover of the declaration of 
Rights, I would be ashamed of giving freedom to six hundred thou- 
sand of my countrymen, when I could extend it to two millions more." 
Whatever merit attaches to this concession, belongs to the Irish Pro- 
testants, and not to the government, which, as Plowden says, took no 
part in forwarding the measure, and it is, therefore, to be considered 
as one of the first-fruits of the spirit of liberty which animated the 
Irish Parliament at that period. f The Catholics deserved whatever 
favour they received — when permitted to join the Volunteers they had 
raised regiments, and before they were admitted to military brother- 
hood they had largely subscribed to the necessary expenses. They 
might have remembered their wrongs — but, wisely for their charac- 
ters and their elaims, they thought only of the debt they owed their 
country. 

On February 22nd, 1782, directly under the influences of Dungan- 
non, and whilst its echoes were ringing through the Parliament, 
Grattan brought on his motion for an address to the King, declaring 
the rights of Ireland. His speech is a masterpiece of constitutional 
eloquence, but it is peculiarly fine from the abundant and noble testi- 
mony he bears to the character of the Volunteers. 

"You ha\e an immense force, the shape of a much greater of 
different religions, but of one political faith, kept up for three years 
defending the country ; for the government took away her troops and 
consigned her defence to the people ; defending the government, I 
say, aiding the civil power, and pledged to maintain the liberty of 

* This gentleman commanded the S!ie;o Volunteers. 

t This view is excellently put in Mr. Barry's Essay an the Repeal Question, p. 33. 



80 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

Ireland to the last drop of their blood. Who is this body ? The 
Commons of Ireland ! and you at the head of them ; it is more — it is 
the society in its greatest possible description ; it is the property — it is 
the soul of the country armed ; they, for this body, have yet no ade- 
quate name. In the summer of 1780, they agree to a declaration of 
right; in the summer of 1781, they hear that the French are at sea, 
in the heat and hurricane of their zeal for liberty, they stop; without 
delay, they offer to march ; their march waits only for the commands 
of the Castle : the Castle, where the sagacious courtier had abandon- 
ed his uniform, finds it prudent to receive a self-armed association ; 
that self-armed association this age has beheld ; posterity will admire 
— will wonder. — The delegates of that self-armed association enter 
the mansion of the government, ascend the steps, advance to the pres- 
ence of the Lord Lieutenant, and make a tender of their lives and 
fortunes, with the form and reception of an authenticated establish- 
ment. A painter might here display and contrast the loyalty of a 
courtier with that of a volunteer; he would paint the courtier hurry- 
ing off his uniform, casting away his arms, filling his pockets with the 
public money, and then presenting to his sovereign naked servitude ; 
he would paint the volunteer seizing his charters, handling his arms, 
forming his columns, improving his discipline, demanding his rights, 
and then, at the foot of the throne, making a tender of armed allegi- 
ance. He had no objection to die by the side of England; but he 
must be found dead with her charter in his hand." 

But the time had not yet arrived, though it was near at hand, for 
the Irish Parliament to assent to the proposition of its own freedom. 
They started back reluctant from the glowing form of liberty ; not 
even with a nation in arms behind them, and with a man of the in- 
spired eloquence of Grattan amongst their solid ranks, could their 
valour and his genius triumph over the inveterate corruption and ser- 
vility of that house. Grattan's motion was lost by a majority of 137 
to 68. But the fate of that statesman who had long sat at the foun- 
tain head of corruption, and who ministered so liberally to the profli- 
gacy of the Irish majority — the worst minister that England ever had, 
with more than the corruption, and none of the integrity of Walpole 
— whose obstinate perseverance in principles opposed to the theory of 
the British constitution, lost to England the noblest member of her 
great confederation — was at length sealed. He was obliged to relin- 
quish, with disgrace, the post he had held with dishonour. Defeat and 
disaster followed Lord North into his disgraceful retirement. He was 
succeeded by Lord Rockingham and Charles Fox; Lord Carlisle 
was recalled, and the Duke of Portland was chosen to administer the 
complicated affairs of Ireland. Grattan, on the 14th of March, de- 
clared that he would bring on the Declaration of Rights, and he 
moved, and succeeded in carrying a very unusual summons, that the 
house be called over on Tuesday the 16th of April next, and that the 
speaker do write circular letters to the members, ordering them to 
attend that day, as they tender the rights of the Irish Parliament. 

The Duke of Portland made a triumphant entry into Dublin, and 
he was welcomed, for no good reason that the history of the times can 



HISTORY OF THE VOLV3VTEER3. 81 

give, with the loudest acclamations. His arrival appeared to promise 
the fulfilment of all the hopes of Ireland, and he received, by anticipa- 
tion, a gratitude which he never deserved. But his coming had been 
preceded by some of the habitual policy of his party. Letters of 
honied courtesy, as hollow as they were sweet, were despatched by 
Fox to " his old and esteemed friend the good Earl of Charlemont."* 
Whig diplomacy and cunning never concocted a more singular piece 
of writing ! He alludes with graceful familiarity to the long and 
pleasing friendship which had existed between them, and after a 
variety of compliments, begs for a postponement of the house for three 
we?ks in order that the Duke of Portland might have an opportunity 
of inquiring into the opinions of Lord Charlemont, and of gentlemen 
of the first weight and consequence. But Fox was well aware of their 
opinions. They were recorded in the votes and speeches of the two 
houses, and in the military transactions of the Volunteers. No man 
knew them better than Fox. He had been in communication with 
the leaders of the patriot party, and was well aware of the merits of 
their claims. And his proposition was a feeble device to try the 
chapter of accidents. But Charlemont was firm, for G rattan would 
give " no time." The general of the Volunteers replied in terms of 
courteous dignity, but unwonted determination. He told the wily 
minister of England that the Declaration of Rights was universally 
looked up to as an essential and necessary preliminary to any confi- 
dence in the new administration. " We ask for our rights — our incon- 
trovertible rights — restore them to us, and for ever unite in the closest, 
and best rivetted bonds of affection, the Kingdom of Ireland to her 
beloved, though hitherto unkind sister." This was the sentimental 
cant of politics; but the upshot was, that the Declaration of Rights 
was to be moved on the 16th of April, and it was only left to the genius 
of intrigue to yield with assumed grace what England dared no longer 
withhold. No civil letters to courtly vanity — no philosophic generalities 
and specious promises could effect anything with Volunteer artillery. 
— The epistles had all the graces of Horace Walpole, and were abun- 
dant in compliments; the compliments were returned, but the 
Declaration was retained. Grattan, if his own wisdom could have 
allowed it, would not have dared to pause. He stood in the first 
rank — a hundred thousand men were behind him in arms — he could 
not hesitate. It was his glory, and his wisdom to advance. And he 
advanced in good earnest, nor staid his foot till it was planted on the 
ruins of usurpation. 

On the 9th of April, Fox communicated to the House of Commons 
in England, the following message from the King: — 

" George R., His Majesty, being concerned to find that discontent 
and jealousies are prevailing among his loyal subjects in Ireland, upon 
matters of great weight and importance, earnestly recommends to this 
house, to take the same into their most serious consideration, in order 
to such a final adjustment, as may give mutual satisfaction to both 
kingdoms. G. R." 

* Hardy's Life of Charlemont, vol. 2, p. 4. 



82 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

A similar communication was made to the Irish Parliament by John 
Hely Hutchinson, principal secretary of state in Ireland, who, at the 
same time, stated that he had uniformly maintained the right of Ire- 
land to independent and exclusive legislation, and declared that he 
would. give his earnest support to any assertion of that right whether 
by vote of the house, by address, or by enactment. 

A scene of still greater excitement and interest occurred on this 
occasion, than that which had so carried away the citizens of Dublin 
two years before, when Grattan first introduced the question of Irish 
Rights. The nation had become strong and confident by success — 
they had achieved free trade — their military organization had attained 
the greatest perfection of discipline and skill — their progress was, 
indeed, triumphant, "from injuries to arms;" and from arms to 
liberty, they had but one short step to take. — There was, therefore, 
great excitement through Ireland as to the issue of Grattan's Declara- 
tion of Right, not that they apprehended failure, but that all men felt 
anxious to see the realization of their splendid hopes. The streets of 
Dublin were lined with the Volunteers — the House of Commons was 
a great centre, round which all the city appeared moving. Inside, rank, 
and fashion, and genius, were assembled; outside, arras were glistening 
and drums sounding. It was the commencement of a new govern- 
ment, and the king had sent a message of peace to Ireland. 

The message was similar to that delivered to the English house, and 
when it had been read, Mr. George Ponsonby moved that an address 
should be presented, which might mean anything, and meant nothing. 
It was to tell His Majesty that the house was thankful for a gracious 
message, and that it would take into its serious consideration the dis- 
contents and jealousies which had arisen in Ireland, the causes of which 
should be investigated with all convenient dispatch, and be submitted 
to the royal justice and wisdom of His Majesty. 

When this motion, very full of the solemn plausibilities of loyalty 
and the generalities of pretended patriotism was made, Henry Grattan 
rose to move his amendment. It was a moment of great interest. 
The success of the motion was certain, but all parties were anxious to 
learn the extent of the demands which Grattan was about to make. 
As the "herald and oracle of his armed countrymen" he moved the 
amendment which contained the Rights of Ireland ; and confident of 
its success, he apostrophised his country as already free, and appealed 
to the memory of those great men who had first taught the doctrine 
of liberty which his nobler genius had realized. He moved : 

" That an humble address be presented to His Majesty, to return 
His Majesty the thanks of this House for his most gracious message 
to this House, signified by His Grace the Lord Lieutenant. 

" To assure His Majesty of our unshaken attachment to His Ma- 
jesty's person and government, and of our lively sense of his paternal 
care in thus taking the lead to administer content to His Majesty's 
subjects of Ireland. 

" That, thus encouraged by his royal interposition, we shall beg 
leave, with all duty and affection, to lay before His Majesty the causes 
of our discontents and jealousies. To assure His Majesty that his 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 83 

subjects of Ireland are a free people. That the crown of Ireland is an 
imperial crown inseparably annexed to the crown of Great Britain, on 
which connection the interests and happiness of both nations essen- 
tially depend : but that the kingdom of Ireland is a distinct kingdom, 
with a parliament of her own — the sole legislature thereof. That i 
there is no body of men competent to make laws to bind this nation ] 
except the King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland ; nor any other 1 
parliament which hath any authority or power of any sort whatsoever V 
in this country save only the Parliament of Ireland. To assure His 
Majesty, that we humbly conceive that in this right the very essence 
of our liberties exists ; a right which we, on the part of all the people 
of Ireland, do claim as their birthright, and which we cannot yield 
but with our lives. 

M To assure His Majesty, that we have seen with concern certain 
claims advanced by the Parliament of Great Britain, in an act enti- 
tled 'An act for the better securing the dependency of Ireland :' an 
act containing matter entirely irreconcilable to the fundamental 
rights of this nation. That we conceive this act, and the claims it 
advances, to be the great and principal cause of the discontents and 
jealousies in this kingdom. 

" To assure His Majesty, that His Majesty's Commons of Ireland 
do most sincerely wish that all bills which become law in Ireland 
should receive the approbation of His Majesty under the seal of Great 
Britain ; but that yet we do consider the practice of suppressing our 
bills in the council of Ireland, or altering the same any where, to be 
another just cause of discontent and jealousy. 

" To assure His Majesty, that an act, entitled 'An act for the better 
accommodation of His Majesty's forces,' being unlimited in duration, 
and defective in other instances, but passed in that shape from the 
particular circumstances of the times, is another just cause of discon- 
tent and jealousy in this kingdom. 

" That we have submitted these, the principal causes of the pres- 
ent discontent and jealousy of Ireland, and remain in humble expec- 
tation of redress. 

"That we have the greatest reliance on His Majesty's wisdom, the 
most sanguine expectations from his virtuous choice of a Chief Gover- 
nor, and great confidence in the wise, auspicious, and constitutional 
councils which we see, with satisfaction, His Majesty has adopted. 

" That we have, moreover, a high sense and veneration for the 
British character, and do therefore conceive that the proceedings of 
this country, founded as they were in right, and tempered by duty, 
must have excited the approbation and esteem instead of wounding 
the pride of the British nation. 

" And we beg leave to assure His Majesty, that we are the more 
confirmed in this hope, inasmuch as the people of this kingdom have 
never expressed a desire to share the freedom of England, without 
declaring a determination to share her fate likewise, standing and fall- 
ing with the British nation." 

The motion was carried unanimously. And thus after centuries of 
arduous contest, after many long toils for liberty, the country was free. 



84 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

No doubt then existed that the declaration of the Irish Parliament was 
all sufficient to establish liberty. The resolutions of the legislature 
were enforced by the disciplined levies of the Volunteers, and the 
eloquence of the senator was rendered irresistible by the arms of the 
soldier. 

Accordingly, on the 27th of May T the Lord Lieutenant replied to 
the address. The reply virtually conceded every thing demanded on 
the part of Ireland. It was, however, general enough, but Grattan 
appeared to be perfectly satisfied with its terms. He said that he 
understood that Great Britain gave up in loto every claim to authority 
over Ireland. Coupling the message delivered to the Irish Commons 
with that which was communicated to the English legislature in which 
a final adjustment was recommended, the pledge of English faith to 
a constitutional arrangement would appear to have been complete and 
unequivocal. But it is difficult to have much sympathy for the ex- 
travagant amount of gratitude awarded to the British Parliament by 
the leading men of the day in Ireland. They treated the rights of 
Ireland as though their establishment was not the work of Irishmen 
but the free gift of English magnanimity. And the address moved by 
Grattan "did protest too much." There was one clause which 
created some opposition on the part of Mr. Walshe, a man of con- 
siderable learning and eloquence, atid of Sir Simon Bradstreet, the 
Recorder of Dublin. It was to this effect — " That we do assure 
His Majesty that no constitutional question between the two countries 
will any longer exist which can interrupt their harmony, and that 
Great Britain as she has approved our firmness so she may rely on 
our affection." There were but two dissentient voices to the address : 
it would have been wiser probably to have let the clause pass, it was 
a generality which as it afterwards turned out, was completely erro- 
neous, bound the Parliament to nothing, and was a mere explosion of 
unmerited gratitude. One hundred thousand pounds, to raise twenty 
thousand seamen were voted for the English navy, and this was a 
more substantial proof of overflowing gratitude. 

As guarantees to the security of Irish rights, several measures were 
introduced in the Irish and English legislatures. Grattan brought in 
a bill to punish mutiny and desertion which repealed the perpetual 
mutiny act, and restored to Parliament a due control over the arnry, 
and another to reverse erroneous judgments and decrees, which at 
the time was supposed to have settled the question of the final judica- 
ture of Ireland, and to have taken from the English Lords and 
Queen's Bench their usurped and appellate jurisdiction. Yelverton 
brought in a measure, the repeal of Poyning's law, and Charles Fox 
introduced a bill into the legislature for the purpose of repealing the 
declaratory act of the Gth of George the First. At the same time 
that the liberties of Ireland were thus, as it was thought, finally se- 
cured, the country was not forgetful of the signal debt they owed to 
him who above all others had conduced to restore her dignity and 
independence. Fifty thousand pounds were voted to Grattan, his 
friends having declined for him the larger tribute of one hundred 
thousand which had been first proposed, and having also refused an 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 85 

insidious offer of the Phoenix Park, and the Lord Lieutenant's man- 
sion, which had been made by Mr. Connolly, on the part of the Gov- 
ernment. 

Brief, however, was the public contentment at the issue of the 
great struggle, and there is not to be found in the history of any 
country a chapter more discreditable and fatal than that which re- 
cords the divisions that sprung up amongst the patriots whose labours 
had effected the great revolution. It would be a painful task to in- 
vestigate the motives of men whose fame is a part of our national 
glory, and it is left to each student of our history to draw his own 
conclusions from a plain statement of the facts. 

It appeared to Flood, and it may be said not unreasonably, that a 
simple repeal of the declaratory act of George the First by England 
was not a sufficient security against the resumption of legislative 
control. His argument was intelligible enough : The 6th of George 
the First was only a declaratory act ; a declaratory act does not make 
or unmake, but only declare the law ; and neither could its repeal 
make or unmake the law. The repeal, unless there was an express 
renunciation of the principle — is only a repeal of the declaration, and 
not of the legal principle. The principle remained as before, unless 
it was specially renounced. Many acts had been passed by the Brit- 
ish Parliament binding Ireland, and some of them before the declara- 
tory act of George. The act did not legalize these statutes, it only 
declared that the principle of their enactment was legal — its repeal 
does not establish their illegality, but only repeals the declaration. 
Flood was historically right. In the reign of William and Mary, the 
English Parliament usurped the absolute right of making laws for 
Ireland, and in 1691 passed an act to make a fundamental alteration 
in the constitution of this country by excluding Roman Catholics, 
who were the majority of the nation, from a seat in the Lords and 
Commons.* It was true, he argued, that the Irish had renounced 
the claim of England, but could such renunciation be equal to a re- 
nunciation by England ? In any controversy could the assertion of 
a party in his own favour be equal to the admission of his antagonist ? 
Fitzgibbon was of the same opinion as Flood, and both insisted on an 
express renunciation by England. 

Grattan, on the other hand, refused the security of a British statute, 
and exclaimed that the people had not come to England for a charter 
but with a charter, and asked her to cancel all declarations in opposi- 
tion to it. It must be said that Ireland had no charter. Her declara- 
tion of right was not a Bill of Rights, and Flood asked for a Bill of 
Rights. He was not satisfied without an express renunciation. But 
what guarantee against future usurpation by a future parliament was 
any renunciation, however strong ? The true security for liberty 
was the spirit of the people and the arms of the Volunteers. When 
that spirit passed away, renunciations and statutes were no more than 
parchment — the faith of England remained the same as ever, un- 
changeable. 

* Plowden's History, vol. 2, chapter 1, paragraph 10, The act was 3 William and Mary, c. 2. 
8 



86 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

Whatever were the merits of the controversy, it was pregnant with 
the worst effects. The parliament adopted the views of Grattan ; 
the Volunteers sided with Flood. A Bill of Rights, a great interna- 
tional compact, a plain specific deed, the statement of the claims of 
Ireland and the pledge of the faith of England would have been sat- 
isfactory, and it must be confessed that men were not far astray in 
asking for it. But unfortunately, the great minds of the day so far 
participated in the weaknesses of humanity as to have yielded to 
small impulses and to have plunged into a rivalry fatal to their coun- 
try, in place of uniting their powers for the completion of a noble and 
glorious undertaking. It was unfortunate for their glory — it was 
fatal for liberty.* Flood, though legally right in the argument, and 
wise in his suggestions, may unwittingly have permitted himself to 
be influenced by a feeling of jealousy. He had seen the laurels he 
had been so long earning, placed on the brow of a younger and cer- 
tainly a greater man, and his dissatisfaction was an unfortunate but a 
natural feeling. On the other hand, Grattan, whose peculiar work 
was the declaration of rights, felt indignant at the imputation cast 
on his wisdom, and the impeachment of his policy by the measures 
which Flood proposed. When Flood was refused leave to bring in 
his Bill of Rights on the 19th of June, Grattan, who had opposed it 
in one of his finest speeches, moved a resolution, which appears very 
indefensible, "that the legislature of Ireland is independent; and 
that any person who shall, by writing or otherwise, maintain that a 
right in any other country to make laws for Ireland internally or ex- 
ternally exists or can be revived, is inimical to the peace of both king- 
doms." It was a strong measure to denounce as a public enemy the 
wary statesman who read futurity with more caution than himself. 
He withdrew his motion and substituted another; "that leave was 
refused to bring in said heads of a bill, because the sole and exclusive 
light of legislation, in the Irish Parliament in all cases, whether in- 
ternally or externally, hath been already asserted by Ireland ; and 
fully, finally, and irrevocably acknowledged by the British Parlia- 
ment."! 

The opinion of the Lawyers' corps of Volunteers was in favour of 
Flood's interpretation of the constitutional relations of the two coun- 
tries. They considered that repealing a declaration was not destroy- 
ing a principle, and that a statute renouncing any pre-existing right, 
was an indispensable guarantee for future security. They appointed 
a committee to inquire into the question, which reported that it was 
necessary that an express renunciation should accompany the repeal of 
the 6th of George the First. Whereupon the corps of Independent 

* " It was deeply lamented that at a moment critical and vital to Ireland, beyond all former 
precedent, an inveterate and almost vulgar hostility should have prevented the co-opera- 
tion of men, whose counsels and talents would have secured its independence. But that 
jealous lust for undivided honour, the eternal enemy of patriots and liberty, led them 
away even beyond the ordinary limits of parliamentary decorum. The old courtiers 
fanned the flame — the new ones added fuel to it — and the independence of Ireland was 
eventually lost by the distracting result of their animosities, which in a few years was 
used as an instrument to annihilate that very legislature, the preservation of which had 
been the theme of their hostilities." — Barrington's Rise and Fall, chap. xvii. 
► T See Grattan's Speeches, vol. 1. p. 166. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 87 

Dublin Volunteers, of which Grattan was colonel, presented him with 
an address. They reviewed the whole argument, and ended by re- 
questing their colonel to assist with his hearty concurrence and stre- 
nuous support the opinions propounded by a committee " chosen 
from the best informed body in this nation." Such an address, inclu- 
ding at one and the same time, an approbation of the course pursued 
by Flood, and a request to Grattan to support the doctrines he had 
from the first opposed, was construed by his nice sense of honour into 
a dismissal from his command. He did not resign lest his regiment 
might construe a peremptory resignation as an offence. But he told 
them, that in the succession of officers, they would have an oppor- 
tunity u to indulge the range of their disposition." He was, how- 
ever, re-elected, nor did he lose the command until the October of the 
next year, when he voted against the retrenchment in the army.* 
The Belfast First Volunteer company also addressed him. Doubts 
they said had arisen whether the repeal of the 6th of George the 
First, was a sufficient renunciation of the power formerly exercised 
over Ireland ; they thought it advisable that a law should be enacted 
similar to the addresses which had been moved to his Majesty, and 
which embodied the declaration of the Rights of Ireland. f Grattan's 
answer was laconic, but explicit. He said he had given the fullest 
consideration to their suggestions : he was sorry he differed from 
them ; he conceived their doubts to be ill-founded. With great res- 
pect to their opinions, and unalterable attachment to their interest, he 
adhered to the latter. They received a different answer from Flood, 
whom they admitted as a member of their corps. Similar circum- 
stances occurring in different other regiments, conduced to foster the 
evil passions of those two distinguished men, until they broke out 
into a disgraceful and virulent personal dispute. But there were 
worse consequences attending this unfortunate quarrel. Men whose 
united talents and zeal would have rendered secure the edifice of their 
joint labours, and the monument of their glory, were prompted to the 
adoption of different lines of policy. Grattan refused to advance. 
Flood was all for progress. Had both united to reform the constitu- 
tion, and to secure its permanence, that event, which eventually put 
a period to the existence of the legislature of Ireland, would never 
have occurred. A decision in the Court of King's Bench of Eng- 
land, by Lord Mansfield, in an Irish case brought there by appeal, 
seemed to affirm the arguments, and to give weight to the objections 
of Flood. Mr. Townshend, in introducing in the English Com- 
mons, the Renunciation Bill, (January, 1783,) said that doubts were 
entertained as to the sufficiency of the Simple Repeal, and had been 
increased by a late decision in the Court of King's Bench, which, 
however, he was informed, the court was bound to give, the case 
having come under its cognizance before any question as to the 
appellate jurisdiction in Irish matters had been raised. He then 
moved " that leave be given to bring in a bill for removing and pre- 
venting all doubts which have arisen, or may arise, concerning the 

* The motion for retrenchment was made by Sir Henry Cavendish, October 28, 1783. 
t The History of Belfast, p. 209. 



88 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS, 

exclusive rights of the parliament and courts of Ireland, in matters of 
legislation and judicature, and for preventing any writ of error or ap- 
peal from any of his Majesty's courts in Ireland from being received, 
heard, or adjusted in any of his Majesty's courts in this kingdom ; 
and that Mr. Townshend, General Conway, Mr Pitt, Mr. William 
Grenville, and the Attorney and Solicitor General do bring in the 
bill." The motion passed without a division, and the Renunciation 
Bill was the result. This vindicated the correctness of Flood's rea- 
soning — it did not afford any additional security to liberty. A solemn 
international compact, and internal reform of parliament were still re- 
quired to render secure and indefeasible the settlement of '82. It is 
a matter of serious and grave regret, that Grattan did not take the 
same leading part in obtaining parliamentary reform, and relieving the 
legislature from internal influence, as he did in emancipating it from 
foreign control. He would have been a safe counsellor to the Volun- 
teers ; and had it been found advisable and consistent with the spirit 
of the constitution, to appeal to another assembly of armed delegates, 
it would have met under better auspices than the Dublin Convention 
of 1783 — nor would it have terminated so ignominously. But he was 
influenced by weaker counsels ; and, admitting that no evil passion 
of any kind was busy with him, we are forced to bolieve that he 
allowed his manly judgment to be swayed by inferior and timid minds. 
Reform was plainly necessary to the completion of his own labours. 
The House of Commons did not represent the people, nor did its 

1 construction give any guarantee for the security of popular liberties. 
Such a body might be forced into great and extraordinary virtue, as it 
was in '82 ; under such unusual influences, with the Volunteers in 
arms throughout the whole country, and men like Grattan, Burgh, 
and Flood amongst them, they were unable to resist the tide that was 

.flowing ; but there was no principle of stability in them, they were 
irresponsible and corrupt. Reform was the obvious corollary of the 
!Declaration of Right. Had the framers of the constitution of '82, 
united to consolidate and secure their own work, and ceased from the 
insane contentions by which they disgraced their success ; had they 
given a popular character to the legislature which they freed from 
external control, and converted it into the veritable organ of the na- 
tional will, by conferring extensive franchises on the people, by inclu- 
ding the Catholics in their scheme, and putting an end to the system 
of close boroughs, it would have been impossible for any English min- 
ister, without a war, whose issue would have been doubtful, to destroy 
the legislative existence of the country by an union. And this they 
could have done. The Volunteers were still in force. One hundred 
thousand men were in arms, and had urgently pressed upon their 
leaders the insufficiency of their work : they had demanded reform in 
every provincial meeting* — at Belfast, on the 9th of June, 1783, a 

* Towards the end of 1782, the government set on foot a plan whose design was obvious 
enough — the embodying of Fencible regiments. The Volunteers took fire, and held 
meetings to oppose it in every quarter. Galway took the initiative, and was followed by 
Dublin and Belfast. The resolution passed at the Tholsel, in Galway. on the 1st of Sep- 
tembei-. 1782, to the effect that the Volunteers were most interested in the defence of the 
country, and most adequate to the duty— that raising Fencible regiments without sanction 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 89 

meeting of delegates from thirty-eight corps of Volunteers assembled 
after a review, and adopted the following resolution : — 

" Resolved unanimously, That at an era so honourable to the spirit, 
wisdom, and loyalty of Ireland, a more equal representation of 
the people in parliament deserves the deliberate attention of every 
Irishman ; as that alone which can perpetuate to future ages the in- 
estimable possession of a free constitution. In this sentiment, we are 
happy to coincide with a late dicision of the much respected Volun- 
teer army of the province of Munster; as well as with the opinion of 
that consummate statesman, the late Earl of Chatham ; by whom it 
was held a favourite measure for checking venality, promoting public 
virtue, and restoring the native spirit of the constitution." 

Similar meetings were had, and similar resolutions adopted in every 
part of Ireland. If the spirit of the Volunteers had been wisely 
directed, and their exertions turned into the proper channel, there 
seems to be no reason to doubt that the constitution and liberties of 
Ireland would have been firmly secured on a basis that would have 
withstood the efforts of England. In the latter country, the question 
of Reform had met with the sanction of the Duke of Richmond, and 
Mr. Pitt. Reform associations had been formed, two of which, the 
* Yorkshire Association,' and the ' London Constitutional Knowledge 
Society,' entered into correspondence with the Volunteers, applauded 
their spirit, and urged upon them the utility of holding a national con- 
vention of the delegates of the four provinces. 

It was a suggestion quite consonant to their spirit and to their views, 
and they lost no time in acting upon it. In the month of July, 1783, 
delegates from several corps in Ulster summoned a general assembly 
of delegates from the entire province for the 8th of September. Five 
hundred representatives met in pursuance of this requisition at Dun- 
gannon.* Flood travelled from Dublin to attend, but was detained on 
the road by illness. The Earl of Bristol was present, and took an 
active part in the proceedings. He was the son of Lord Hervey, and 
made a considerable figure for a few years in the proceedings of the 
Volunteers. There is no man of whom more opposite opinions are 
given. Whilst some represent him as a man of elegant erudition, and 
extensive learning, others paint him as possessing parts more brilliant 
than solid, as being generous but uncertain ; splendid but fantastic ; 
an amateur without judgment ; and a critic without taste : engaging 
but licentious in conversation ; polite but violent ; in fact, possessing 
many of the qualities which the satirist attributes to another noble- 
man of his country, the fickle and profligate Villiers. There could be 
no greater contrasts in his character than in his conduct and position. 
He wore an English coronet and an Irish mitre; and some have thought 

of parliament was unconstitutional, nor justified by necessity, and might be dangerous to 
liberty — were adopted at several meetings. The Belfast company met. protested against 
the measure, and addressed Flood. The plan was not then carried into execution. It was 
a manifest attempt to terrify and overawe the Volunteers. They were too strong as yet to 
submit. 

* Mr. Grattan says this meeting took place at a meeting-house of dissenters in Belfast. 
The statement in the text is on the authority of the Historical Collections relating to Bel= 
fast, p. 255, and Belfast Politics, p. 245. See also a pamphlet, History of the Convention, 
published in 1784. 
8* 



90 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

that he was visionary enough to have assumed the port of the Tribune 
only to obtain the power of a Sovereign. He was indeed monarchical 
in his splendour— his retinue exceeded that of the most affluent noble- 
man — his equipages were magnificent — he delighted in the acclama- 
tions of the populace, and the military escort which surrounded his 
carriage.* He was a man who possessed princely qualities ; he was 
costly, luxurious, munificent, and, in the strange antithesis of his 
position — bishop earl demagogue — was formed to attract the nation 
amongst which he had cast his lot. But his qualities were not danger- 
ous ; government was more afraid of him than they required to have 
been ; and he effected little in the history of his day, more than play- 
ing a splendid part in a transitory pageant. 

The second Dungannon Convention elected for its president Mr. 
James Stewart, afterwards Marquis of Londonderry. He was a 
friend of Lord Charlemont. They passed a number of resolutions, but 
the most important was the following : — 

" That a committee of five persons be appointed to represent Ulster 
in a grand national Convention, to be held at noon, in the Royal Ex- 
change of Dublin, on the 10th of November, then ensuing; to which 
they hoped that each of the other provinces would send delegates to 
digest and publish a plan of parliamentary reform, to pursue such 
measures as may appear most likely to render it effectual; to adjourn 
from time to time, and to convene provincial meetings if found 
necessary." 

Addresses were issued to the Volunteers of the three provinces, 
filled with the noblest sentiments in favour of liberty, and abundant in 
the impassioned if not inflated eloquence in which the spirit of the 
day delighted to be clothed. There was, however, an anomaly in 
their proceedings, and a striking and painful contrast between their 
abstract theories of liberty, and their practical manifestation. A 
proposition in favour of the Catholics was rejected — singular fact! 
Here was a body of men, not endowed with the powers of legisla- 
tion, but acting as a suggestive assembly, dictating to legislation the 
way in which it should go, and declaring that freedom should be 
made more diffusive in its enjoyment ; yet, they are found on grave 
deliberation rejecting from their scheme the vast body of the nation, 
whom they professed to emancipate and raise. The practical ab- 
surdity Avas the rock on which they split. And it is said regretfully 
and without reproach, that the influence of this intolerant principle 
upon their counsels is attributable to Lord Charlemont and Henry 
Flood. These good men were the victims of a narrow religious an- 
tipathy, which prevented either of them from rendering permanent 
service to the cause of liberty. 

The interval between the Dungannon meeting and the Dublin 
Convention was stormy ; yet the first parliament in the viceroyalty of 
Lord Northington opened with a vote of thanks to the Volunteers. 
This vote was the work of government. It is most probable that it 
was a deprecatory measure, and intended to guard against any vio- 

* He was escorted to the Rotunda Convention by a troop of light dragoons, commanded 
by his nephew. George R. Fitzgerald. — Barrington's Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, c. 7. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 91 

lence in the Convention. This was the only measure of conciliation 
during the session. Sir Edward Newenham introduced the question 
of retrenchment in the public expenses, principally with reference 
to reduction in the army. It was taken up warmly by Sir H. Cav- 
endish and Henry Flood ; and it certainly did appear as if this enmity 
to the regular army was a Volunteer sentiment, so strongly did the 
principal parliamentary friends of that distinguished body persevere 
in the pressing upon the legislature the question of retrenchment. 
Grattan was opposed to any reduction in the regular forces — he said 
that it was a matter of compact that they remain at a certain 
standard settled in 1782, and he is accordingly found an opponent 
on all occasions of every proposition of retrenchment. The ques- 
tion was unfortunate ; it led to that degrading personal discus- 
sion which displayed the two greatest men in the country in the 
discreditable attitude of virulent and vulgar personal animosity. On 
Sir H. Cavendish's motion for reduction in the expenses of the king- 
dom, Flood eagerly and eloquently supported the proposition. But, 
wandering beyond the necessities of his argument, he indulged in 
some wanton reflections upon Grattan, and the result was an invec- 
tive from the latter, so fierce, implacable, and merciless, that it leaves 
behind it at a great distance the finest specimens of recorded viru- 
lence. The estrangement of these illustrious men was complete. 
And the triumph of their passions was one, and not a very remote, 
cause of the downfall of their country. They could no longer unite 
to serve her ; their views, which had differed so widely before, 
thenceforward became principles of antagonism to carry out which 
was a point of honour, and an instinct of anger ; and they whose 
combined wisdom would have rendered liberty secure, became unwit- 
tingly her most destructive enemies. The conservative policy of 
Grattan, and the progressive principles of Flood, in the acrimony of 
contest and the estrangement of parties, gave full opportunity to gov- 
ernment to perfect that scheme which ended in the Union.* 

We have now arrived at what may well be called the last scene of 
the great political and military drama in which the Volunteers played 
such a distinguished part. At a time of great and pressing public 
peril, they sprung to arms and saved their country. Having dispelled 
the fears of foreign invasion and secured the integrity of Ireland, 
they found within her own system a greater enemy. They found 
trade restricted and legislation powerless. They emancipated indus- 
tiy and commerce ; and they restored a constitution. But with their 
achievements, their ambition increased, and concluding with reason 
that a constitution must be a nominal blessing, where the parliament 
was not freely chosen by the people, f they resolved upon employing 

* These are the opinions which have been forced on me by a study of the events of 
that day. They are uttered with the deepest veneration of the great men whose glory is 
dear to our country. Nor does it detract much from the memory of either, that they par- 
took of some of the weaknesses of that humanity of which they were such noble speci- 
mens. I find that Barrington takes the same view, and enforces the propriety of his opin- 
ions with great eloquence and power. — Rise and Fall, chap. 17. 

t There were three hundred members : sixty-four were county members, and about 
the same number might be returned with great exertion by the people in the cities and 



92 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

their powerful organization to procure a reform in parliament. How 
far this was consistent with their original principle — how far they 
should have left to the parliament itself the remodelling of its internal 
structure, and appealed to its wisdom in their civilian character, it is 
difficult to say. They had asserted at Dungannon — and the proposi- 
tion had received the sanction of the legislature — that a citizen, by 
learning the use of arms, did not forfeit the right of discussing politi- 
cal affairs. Yet Grattan, in replying to Lord Clare's speech on the 
Union, seems to have insisted that armed men might make declara- 
tions in favour of liberty, but having recovered it, they should retire 
to cultivate the blessings of peace.* The Volunteers, however, did 
not imagine that liberty was secured, until the parliament was free. 
Nor is it easy to understand why, if their declarations were of 
value in 1782 to recover a constitution, they should not be of equal 
importance in 1783 to reform the legislature. 

Previous to the first meeting of the Dublin Convention, provincial 
assemblies were held in Leinster, Munster, and Connaught. They 
passed resolutions similar to those adopted at Dungannon — delegates 
were appointed — and the whole nation was prepared for the great 
Congress on which the fate of Ireland seemed to depend. 

At length, amidst the hush of public expectation, the excited hopes 
of the nation and the fears of government, on Monday, the 10th of 
November, one hundred and sixty delegates of the Volunteers of Ire- 
land met at the Royal Exchange. They elected Lord Charlemont 
chairman, and John Talbot Ashenhurst and Captain Dawson, secre- 
taries, and then adjourned to the Rotunda. Their progress was one 
of triumph. The city and county Volunteers lined the streets, and 
received the delegates, who marched two and two through their ranks, 
with drums beating and colours flying. Thousands of spectators 
watched with eyes of hopeful admiration the slow and solemn march 
of the armed representatives to their place of assembly ; and the air 
was rent with the acclamations of the people. Vain noises — hapless 
enthusiasm ! In a few weeks, the doors that opened to admit the 
delegates of one hundred thousand men, were closed upon them with 
inconsiderate haste ; and the fate of the constitution they had restored 
was sealed amidst sullen gloom and angry discontent. But popular 
enthusiasm was not prophetic, or could only anticipate from a glorious 
pageantry a great result. 

The largest room in the Rotunda was arranged for the reception of 
the delegates. Semicircular seats in the manner of the amphitheatre 
were ranged around the chair. The appearance of the house was 
brilliant: the orchestra was filled with ladies; and the excitement of 
the moment was intense and general. Their first proceedings was to 
affirm the fundamental principle of Dungannon, that the right of politi- 
cal discussion was not lost by the assumption of arms ; but the resolu- 
tion was worded in that spirit of exclusion which was the bane and 
destruction of the Volunteers.f 

towns. The remainder were the close borough members, the nominees of the aristocracy, 
and invariably the supporters of government. 

* Grattan's Miscellaneous Works, p. 98. 

t " Resolved, That the Protestant inhabitants of this country are required by the statute 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 93 

The Convention was not two days old until the machinations of 
government were productive of surprise and division. An habitual 
buffoon and witless jester, Sir Boyle Roche, obtained permission, 
though not a member of the Convention, to deliver a message, with 
which he asserted he stood charged, on the part of Lord Kenmare. 
That noble lord had an unenviable reputation : the servility which is 
taught to some natures by long suffering, grows up in others naturally ; 
and in the latter class of men, Lord Kenmare was thought to be dis- 
tinguished for the rank luxuriance of his slavish qualities. He appeared 
to shun freedom, and to part with each link of his fetters with coy 
reluctance. Liberty was a bewilderment for which his nerves were 
too weak ; he walked with more sober dignity amidst the dull realities 
of bare toleration. Presuming, one may suppose, on this alleged 
characteristic, the buffoon of the legislature, at the instigation of 
government, thrust his repulsive presence on the Convention, and 
announced himself as the messenger of Lord Kenmare. " That noble 
lord," said Sir Boyle Roche, " and others of his creed, disavowed any 
wish of being concerned in the business of elections, and fully sensible 
of the favours already bestowed upon them by parliament felt but one 
desire, to enjoy them in peace, without seeking in the present distracted 
state of affairs to raise jealousies, and further embarrass the nation by 
asking for more." 

This was on the 14th of November. It speaks little for the delegates 
who assembled on that day to build up national liberty, that for one 
moment they could have hearkened to, or believed this incredible piece 
of servility. The Catholics had been at their side in the whole cam- 
paign of freedom ; they had given them their money ; and they had 
rushed into their ranks. Was it credible that they should thus in so 
wanton a spirit of slavishness relinquish their rights and abdicate their 
very manhood? But the base delusion lasted but an hour. In the 
afternoon of the same day the princely demagogue, the Earl-Bishop 
of Deny, rose to submit to their consideration " a paper of consequence 
which referred to a class of men who were deserving of every privilege 
in common with their fellow-countrymen." He moved that the paper 
should be read. It was to this effect : " Nov. 14th, 1783 — At a 
meeting of the General Committee of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, 
Sir Patrick Bellew, Bart., in the chair, it was unanimously resolved, 
that the message relating to us delivered this morning to the National 
Convention was totally unknown to and unauthorized by us. That 
we do not so widely differ from the rest of mankind, as, by our own 
act, to prevent the removal of our shackles. That we shall receive 
with gratitude every indulgence that may be extended to us by the legis- 
lature, and are thankful to our benevolent country men for their generous 
efforts on our behalf. Resolved, That Sir P. Bellew be requested to 
present the foregoing resolutions to the Earl of Bristol as the act of the 
Roman Catholics of Ireland, and entreat that his lordship will be 
pleased to communicate them to the National Convention." It is 
scarcely credible that the statement of Roche was simply a falsehood 

law to carry arms and to learn the use of them, and are not by their compliance of the 
legislature excluded from the exercise of their civil rights." 



94 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

of his own base coinage, and yet such is the fact ; and that it was by 
the instigation of government, no one will hesitate to believe. 

This was just the sort of manoeuvre which assorted well with the 
usual practices of the English managers of Ireland. The governments 
of the world have ruled nations according to the genius of the govern- 
ing people — the despotisms of Asia by the bowstring and the torture — ■ 
Rome ruled dependant colonies by the sword — others have preserved 
their power by deceit and mystery — England has managed this country 
on a system which has borrowed something from all. But the perfidy 
which derived strength from the divisions of the people, was the leading 
detail in her management. She has ever felt how incompatible was 
the vicious exercise of her power, with the union of the people ; she 
knew that when they forgot their division she must abdicate her influ- 
ence, and a deep persuasion of this has produced that system of 
fomented dissension and well cultivated hatred by which her strength 
was less positive than derivative, springing from the weakness of a 
skilfully divided nation. The effects of her policy are plain in every page 
of the history of the Volunteers, from the hour when they gallantly 
rushed to arms to protect a country, left defenceless by a miserable 
government, to their noble struggles for freedom, and so to the 
wretched catastrophe of their decline. The present effort, mean and 
dishonourable as it was — was eminently successful. It furnished an 
excuse to the members of the Convention, who with all their patriot- 
ism, were disinclined to the claims of the Catholics, to leave every 
security for their liberties out of their plans of reform. The Catholics 
— and it was not in nature that they could have done otherwise — 
turned with sullen disgust from plausible theories of freedom, in which 
they were not included, from vain and pompous promises of liberty, 
whose maimed and imperfect blessings were limited to the minority 
of the people. The Convention was little more than a laboratory of 
constitutions, in which the nation took no interest, with skilful work- 
men and great science, with wonderful art and knowledge, but wanting 
all sympathy with the people who repudiated their abstractions and 
laughed at their philosophies. 

When this little episode, important enough however in its results, 
was over, the Convention resolved itself into committees, and appoint- 
ed sub-committees, to prepare plans of parliamentary reform, for the 
consideration of the general body. "Then was displayed a singular 
scene, and yet such a scene as any one, who considered the almost 
unvarying disposition of an assembly of that nature, and the particu- 
lar object for which it was convened, might justly have expected. 
From every quarter and from every speculatist, great clerks or no 
clerks at all, was poured in such a multiplicity of plans of reform, 
some of them ingenious, some which bespoke an exercised and ra- 
tional mind, but in general so utterly impracticable, 'so rugged and 
so wild in their attire, they looked not like the offspring of inhabitants 
of the earth and yet were on it,' that language would sink in pourtray- 
ing this motley band of incongruous fancies, of misshapen theories, 
valuable only if inefficient, or execrable if efficacious.* 

* Hardy's Life of Charlemoiit. Hardy was one of Lord Charlemont's coterie, and looked 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 95 

But the plan which, after some weeks of discussion, was eventu- 
ally adopted, was the workmanship of the ablest head in the assem- 
bly. Flood had assumed, because he was able to grasp and resolute 
to maintain, a predominating superiority over the Convention, It was 
the ascendancy of a vigorous eloquence, a commanding presence, and 
a resistless will. With him in all his views, and beyond him in many, 
was the Bishop of Deny. The plan of reform which these two men 
approved* was adopted, and Flood was selected to introduce a bill 
founded on its principles and suggestions, into Parliament. They 
imagined that they could terrify the legislature, and they much miscal- 
culated the power of the Volunteers. That power was already sha- 
ken ; they had flung away the sympathies of the people; they had 
by their conduct defined themselves as an armed oligarchy, whose 
limited notions of freedom extended no farther than their own privi- 
leges and claims; they were abhorred and feared by government and 
its parliamentary retainers; they were not trusted by the great body 
of the nation. It was under unfortunate auspices like these, in the 
midst of bitter hostility and more dangerous indifference, that Flood, 
leaving the Rotunda, proceeded on the 29th of December to the 
House of Commons with a bill, every provision of which was aimed 
at the Parliamentary existence of two-thirds of the house. He had 
requested the delegates not to adjourn till its fate was ascertained. 
But fatigue and disappointment rendered compliance impossible. 

Flood's plan embraced many of the principles which have since 
become incorporated with the British constitution — the destruction 
of borough influence, and the creation of a sound county franchise. f 
There was nothing revolutionary — nothing of that spirit to which 
modern usages give the name of radical, in its principles and details. 
It was only defective in its grand omission. The Catholics obtained 
no boon, and acquired no liberty by its provisions, and to its fate in 
the legislature they were naturally indifferent. We have objected to 
Grattan that he did not go on with the popular movement — it may 
with equal justice be alleged against Lord Charlemont and Flood, 
that by their religious intolerance they impaired the strength of pop- 
ular opinion and marred the efficacy of all their previous proceedings. 

The debate consequent on Flood's motion for leave to bring in his 

at men and things through the medium of Marino. His maiden speech was made in sup- 
port of Flood's plan of reform, brought up from the Convention. It should not be forgotten 
that Hardy — though poor, he was incorruptible — scorned the large offers which were made 
to him at the Union. He was a patriot not to be purchased, when corruption was most 
munificent. 

* The bishop would have included the Catholics. 

t Scheme of Reform. — "That every Protestant freeholder or leaseholder, possessing a 
freehold or leasehold for a certain term of years, of forty shillings value, resident in any 
city or borough, should be entitled to vote at the election of a member for the same. 

" That decayed boroughs should be entitled to return representatives by an extension of 
franchise to the neighbouring parishes. That suffrages of the electors should be taken by 
the sheriff or his deputies, on the same day, at the respective places of election. That 
pensioners of the crown, receiving their pensions during pleasure, should be incapacitated 
from sitting in parliament. That every member of parliament accepting a pension for life, 
or any place under the crown, should vacate his seat. That each member should subscribe 
an oath that he had neither directly nor indirectly given any pecuniary or other consider- 
ation with a view of obtaining that suffrage of an election. Finally, that the duration of 
parliament should not exceed the term of three years. 



96 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

Reform Bill, was bitter and stormy. The whole array of placemen, 
pensioners, and nominees were in arms against the bill — they could 
not disguise their rage and amazement — but vented their wrath against 
the Volunteers in furious terms. And Yelverton who combined an 
unmeasured regard for self-interest with a cautious and measured love 
of liberty, and who had been a Volunteer, denounced the idea of a 
bill introduced into parliament at the point of the bayonet. 

" If this, as it is notorious it does, originates from an armed body 
of men, I reject it. Shall we sit here to be dictated to at the point 
of the bayonet ? I honor the Volunteers ; they have eminently served 
their country ; but when they turn into a debating society, to reform 
the parliament, and regulate the nation ; when, with the rude point 
of the bayonet, they would probe the wounds of the constitution, 
that require the most skilful hand and delicate instrument; it reduces 
the question to this. Is the Convention or the Parliament of Ireland 
to deliberate on the affairs of the nation? What have we lately seen ? 
even during the sitting of Parliament, and in the metropolis of the 
kingdom, armed men lining the streets for armed men going in fastid- 
ious show to that pantheon of divinities, the Rotunda ; and there sit- 
ting in all the parade, and in the mockery of parliament ! Shall we 
submit to this ? 

*' I ask every man who regards that free constitution established 
by the blood of our fathers, is such an infringement upon it to be suf- 
fered ? If it is, and one step more is advanced, it will be too late to 
retreat. If you have slept, it is high time to awake !" 

This was the logic of an attorney-general who never deals a harder 
blow to liberty than when he professes himself her most obedient ser- 
vant. But this transparent hypocrisy was rudely dealt with by^ToodX, 

" 1 have not introduced the Volunteers, but if they are aspersed, I 
will defend their character against all the world. By whom were 
the commerce and the constitution of this country recovered ? — By 
the Volunteers ! 

" Why did not the right honourable gentleman make a declaration 
against them when they lined our streets — when parliament passed 
through the ranks of those virtuous armed men to demand the rights of 
an insulted nation ? Are they different men at this day, or is the right 
honourable gentleman different ? He was then one of their body ; he 
is now their accuser! He, who saw the streets lined, — who re- 
joiced — who partook in their glory, is now their accuser ! Are they 
less wise, less brave, less ardent in their country's cause, or has their 
admirable conduct made him their enemy? May they not say,, we 
have not changed, but you have changed. The right honourable gen- 
tleman cannot bear to hear of Volunteers ; but I will ask him, and I 
I will have a starling taught to hollow in his ear. — Who gave 
I you the free trade ? who got you the free constitution ? who made 
i you a nation ? The Volunteers /"* 

" If they were the men you now describe them, why did you 

* Declaration of the Volunteer army of Ulster, "That the dignified eonduct of the army 
lately restored to the imperial crown of Ireland its original splendour, to nobility its ancient 
privileges, and to the nation at large its inherent rights as a sovereign independent state." 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 97 

ept of their service, why did you not then accuse them ? If they 
re so dangerous why did you pass through their ranks with your 
•aUer at your head to demand a constitution — why did you not then 
p the ills you now apprehend ?" 

jrrattan supported the bill. He said he loved to blend the idea of 
•liament and the Volunteers. They had concurred in establishing 
i constitution in the last parliament ; he hoped that they would do 
n the present. But altogether it must be said that his support was 
b\e — it wanted heart, it wanted the fire, the inspiration, the genius 
lich carried the Declaration of Rights with triumph through that 
iftably corrupt assembly. And yet reform was the only security 
• his own work — it would have rendered the constitution immortal, 
i erected an enduring memorial of his glory.* 

But if Grattan lacked his ancient fire, the opposition which was 
en by the vile brood of faction was not deficient in spirit ; it was 
•ious and fierce. The coarsest invectives, and the vulgarest rib- 
Iry were heaped upon the Volunteers — the question of Parliamen- 
•y Reform was lost sight of in the rancorous malignity of the hour, 
d the debate became a chaos of vituperation, misrepresentation and 
rsonality. At length the question was put, and Flood's motion was 
5t. The numbers were, for the motion 77, against it 157. After 
e result had been ascertained, it was thought fit by the Attorney- 
eneral (Yelverton) to move, " That it has now become indispensa- 
y necessary to declare that the house will maintain its just rights 
id privileges, against all encroachments whatsoever." This was a 
?claration of war, less against Reform, than against the Volunteers, 
he gauntlet was thrown down to them — did they dare to take it up ? 
For awhile the Convention awaited a message from the commons — 
it no message of triumph come to crown their hopes. The scene 
as embarrassing — lassitude had succeeded excitement — silence crept 
owly on the noisy anticipations of victory. At last, adjournment 
as suggested — the dramatic effect was lost, the dramatic spirit had 
issed away. The Convention broke up, to await, without the thea- 
ic pomp of full assembly, the details of discomfiture, insult, and defeat. 

ich was the assumed power of the Volunteers in 1782. Parliament was considered then 
most anti-national. 

* "It was proposed by government to meet this questien in the most decided manner, 
id to bring to issue the contest between the government and this motley assembly 
mrping its rights. This idea met with very considerable support. A great heartiness 
lowed itself among the principal men of consequence and fortune, and a decided spirit 
F opposition to the unreasonable encroachments, appeared with every man attached to 
le Administration. The idea stated was to oppose the leave to bring in a bill for the re- 
nin of parliament in the first stage, on the ground of the petition originating in an assem- 
[y unconstitutional and illegal, and meant to awe and control the legislature. This bold 
lode of treating it was certainly most proper ; at the same time it was subject to the de- 
letions of those who had been instructed on this idea of reform, and those who were still 
nxious to retain a small degree of popularity amongst the Volunteers. To have put it 
nth a resolution would have given us at least fourteen votes. Grattan, having pledged 
imself to the idea of reform of parliament, could not see the distinction between the refu- 
al of leave on the ground of its having come from an exceptionable body, and the abso- 
lte denial of any plan of reform. He voted against us, and spoke ; but his speech evident- 
I showed toat he meant us no harm ; and on the question of the resolution to support par- 
.ament he voted with us. The resolutions are gone to the Lords, who will concur in 
hem, except, it is said, Lord Mountmorris, Lord Aldborou^h, and Lord Charlemont." — 
>etter of the Lord Lieutenant to Charles James Fox, 30th November, 1783. 
9 



98 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

The interval was well used by those who secretly trembled at the 
issue of a direct collision between government and the Volunteers, 01 
who had not the boldness to guide the storm, which they had had the 
temerity to raise. Rumours there were of secret conclaves where 
cowardly counsels took the place of manly foresight and sagacious 
boldness — of discussions with closed doors, where the men who ha 
led the national army in the whole campaign of freedom, canvassc I 
the propriety of sacrificing to their own fears, that body, whose vi< 
tue and renown had conferred on them a reflected glory;* whilst 
some writers have represented the adjournment of the convention, 
and the extinction of the Volunteers, or as it was called by Grattan, 
" their retirement to cultivate the blessings of peace," as the just and 
natural issue to their useful and brilliant career, f As well might it 
be said that the Union was the just and natural result of the consti- 
tution of 1782. And they who abandoned the Volunteers, and al- 
lowed their organization to crumble and decline, are answerable to 
their country for the consequences of that fatal measure of political 
confederation. A large meeting of " particular friends" assembled at 
Lord Charlemont's on the Sunday. % It was unanimously agreed 
that the public peace — which did not appear in any particular danger 
at the time — was the first object to be considered. It is to be re- 
gretted that Hardy is not more explicit on the subject of this meet- 
ing. It would have been fortunate had he informed us who were the 
parties concerned in this transaction ; for it might have furnished a 
key to the subsequent conduct of many men, whose proceedings were 
considered inexplicable at the time. The result of their deliberations 
was important. The Volunteers were to receive their rebuff' qui- 
etly ; they were to separate in peace and good will to all men ; meekly 
to digest the contumelies of the government retainers ; and following 
the advice of some of their officers, to hang up their arms in the 
Temple of Liberty. The advice was good, if the temple had been built. 

On Monday the 1st of December, the Convention met. Captain 
Moore, one of the delegates, was about to comment on the reception of 
their Reform Bill by parliament, when Lord Charlemont called him 
to order. Upon which, in a very dignified way, Henry Flood detailed 
the insulting reception of their bill by the legislature ; and well aware 
of the temper of some of the most influential men in the Convention, 
he counseled moderation. But what other policy than submission 
was on their cards? They had put themselves in antagonism to par- 
liament — they had been treated with contempt and defiance — their 
plan had not even been discussed, but contemptuously rejected because 
it was the suggestion of men with arms in their hands — arms which 
they dare notiise. There were only two courses open — war or sub- 
mission. They adopted the latter course, not without some rebellious 
pride, and a flash of the old spirit that had burned so brightly at Dun- 
gannon. Major Moore exclaimed : — " Is it thus our defence of the 
country against foreign foe and domestic insurgent was to be rewarded ? 

* Barrington's Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, chap. 19, p. 377 
t Grattan's Life, by Henry Grattan, chap. 5. 
j Hardy's Life of Charlemont, vol. 2, p. 138. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 99 

My feelings were almost too strong for utterance — but they were the 
feelings of insulted worth, not of bitterness. The Volunteers would 
disappoint the malice of their enemies, and smile at every attempt to 
violate a character too sacred for detraction. They would show by 
moderation, the wisdom of their minds, — by perseverance the efficacy 
of their resolves. Let the castle spy, or prerogative lawyer, hunt for 
confiscations — our doors are open — the Volunteers stand intrenched in 
conscious virtue — 

Just are their thoughts, and open are their tempers, 

Still are they found in the fair face of day, 

And heaven and men are judges of their actions. 

" I consider the real enemies of their country to be the mock repre- 
sentatives of the people, who have prevented the voice of the people 
from being heard in parliament. I insist, that the borough- mongers 
are equally dangerous to the prerogatives of the sovereign as to the 
liberties of the people, and that our viceroys are obliged to purchase 
their support, by an adoption of their principles. I say, that any 
minister who attempted to alienate the mind of his Majesty from his 
faithful subjects of Ireland, merited impeachment ; and I hope that 
the several counties will address the Lord Lientenant, to remove from 
his counsels all men who dare give advice tending to so calamitous an 
issue." An angry and significant resolution was proposed to the effect 
that it was indispensable for the people to declare that they would 
defend their rights and privileges ; it would have been a feeble parody 
of the insulting resolution of the House of Commons. It was not put ; 
it was not withdrawn. The proceeding was undignified. But the 
wisdom of the ruling minds had already sealed the fate of the Volun- 
teers. And they were rushing, almost unresisting, to their doom. 
They adjourned, after much vain discussion, to the next day, when, 
for the last time the Volunteers met in Convention. Flood rose and 
proposed an address to the Throne, which may be considered the only 
remaining document of importance issued by the Volunteers. 

" That his Majesty's most loyal subjects, the delegates of all the Vo- 
lunteers of Ireland, beg leave to approach his Majesty's Throne with 
all humility. 

" To express their zeal for his Majesty's person, family, and govern- 
ment, and their involiable attachment to the perpetual connection of 
his Majesty's Crown of this kingdom with that of Great Britain. 

"To offer to his Majesty their lives and fortunes in support of his 
Majesty's rights, and of the glory and prosperity of the British empire. 

" To assert, with an humble but an honest confidence, that the 
Volunteers of Ireland did, without expense to the public, protect his 
Majesty's kingdom of Ireland against his foreign enemies, at a time 
when the remains of his Majesty's forces in this country were not 
adequate to that service. 

"To state that through their means the laws and police of this 
kingdom had been better executed and maintained, than at any former 
period within the memory of man. 

" And to implore his Majesty, that their humble wish to have cer- 
tain manifest perversions of the parliamentary representations of this 



100 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

kingdom, remedied by the legislature in some reasonable degree, might 
not be imputed to any spirit of innovation in them, but to a sober and 
laudable desire to uphold the constitution, to confirm the satisfaction 
of their fellow-subjects, and to perpetuate the cordial union of both 
kingdoms." 

The Convention then adjourned sine die, and the fate of the old 
Volunteers, as Grattan used to call them, was sealed. Throughout 
this contest between them and parliament, they were imprudent and 
weak. They established a directly hostile assembly — -they sent down 
their delegates with a Reform Bill, without a single petition to the 
legislature from the counties in its favour — they received a fierce re- 
buke from their enemies, and were coolly defended by their friends — 
and they separated in discomfiture, without having done any thing to 
effect the purpose which summoned them together. That this was 
not the fault of the Volunteers — that the fault lay with the inconsist- 
ent intolerance, and the characteristic weakness of some of their 
leaders, is undeniable — but the consequences were fatally visited upon 
the great institution, which thenceforward lost all importance and 
weight, produced no manner of result in the counsels of the state, 
and was let die out in natural decay by the very contempt of govern- 
ment, and without any visible sign of regret in the nation. 

A very different account of the termination of the Convention ap- 
pears in Sir Jonah Barrington's work.* It possesses all the charms 
of imagination. It is a narrative of pure and exquisitely wrought 
fiction, in which, with all the art of a finished writer, he preserves 
verisimilitude in character and propriety in costume, without the in- 
trusion of any vulgar fact to disturb the perfection of romance. It 
reflects, however, little credit on him as an historian, for it betrays 
either unpardonable ignorance or wanton malice. He imputes to 
Lord Charlemont the mean device of opening the Convention at an 
earlier hour than usual, that he might precipitately adjourn, and in 
that villanous way deceive the sterner minds. Such a trick would 
disgrace the memory of a good man, though a weak one — and would 
add to the errors of a feeble policy, the perfidy of an evil heart. Lord 
Charlemont was incapable of dishonour. He paused in the career of 
glory, when he began to fear a violent issue. But he retired with 
dignity ; and though he relinquished the reputation of a statesman, he 
never tarnished his laurels, won by the purest love of country, and 
the most shining private virtue. 

The Volunteers through the country received the accounts of their 
delegates with indignant amazement. They beat to arms — they met 
— and resolved. But the binding principle was relaxed ; doubt, sus- 
picion, and alarm pervaded the ranks that had been so firmly knit ; 
their resolutions, though still warmed with the spirit of a fiery elo- 
quence, were but sounding words, unheeded by a government which 
had planted too securely the seeds of disunion, to fear the threats of 
men, without leaders, without mutual confidence, without reliance on 
themselves. The Bishop of Deny became their idol ; but it was beyond 
his power to restore them to their commanding position. Flood had 

* Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, chap. 19. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 101 

gone to England, either fired with new ambition, or in despair of ef- 
fecting his great objects at home. The bishop was a bad adviser, too 
bold and unguarded, and the government, amazed at an extraordinary 
reply which he gave to an address of the Bill of Eights' Battalion, a 
northern corps, seriously canvassed the propriety of his arrest. His 
reply concluded with a memorable political aphorism, " Tyranny is 
not government, and allegiance is due only to protection." But' he 
was not prosecuted, nor arrested. It would have been a rash, it was 
an useless step. The natural progress of events effected what a 
measure of severity would probably have retarded, or rendered im- 
possible — the destruction of the Volunteers. Division of opinion 
gained ground amongst them, yet they continued their reviews, they 
published their proceedings, they passed their resolutions. But, 
month by month, and year by year, their numbers diminished, their 
military gatherings became less splendid, their exposition of political 
opinion less regarded by the nation, or feared by the government. 

The Reform Bill presented by the Convention having failed, Flood, 
after his return from England, determined to test the sincerity of the 
parliament in the alleged cause of its rejection. The legislature de- 
clared that they had spurned the bill because it emanated from a 
military body. In March, 1784, he introduced another measure of 
parliamentary reform, backed by numerous petitions from the coun- 
ties. The bill was read a second time, but was rejected on the mo- 
tion for its committal, by a majority of seventy-four. Grattan gave 
a cold support. It became now clear, that the opposition was given 
to reform, not because it was the demand of a military body, but be- 
cause the principle was odious to a corrupt parliament. A meeting 
of the representatives of thirty-one corps took place at Belfast, to 
make preparations for a review, and they adopted a resolution that 
they would not associate with any regiment at the ensuing demon- 
stration, which should continue under the command of officers who 
opposed parliamentary reform.* However natural was their indigna- 
tion at the coolness of some, and the hostility of other professing 
patriots to the great measure of constitutional change, the effect of 
this resolution was unfortunate. It yielded a plausible excuse to 
many of the officers to secede from the Volunteer body — it worked 
out wonderfully the policy of division which government was in every 
way pursuing — it defined the distinctions which existed in the Volun- 
teer association, and widened the fatal breach. 

The rejection of the Reform Bill was followed by an attempt to 
get up a national congress by Flood, Napper Tandy, and others. 
They addressed requisitions to the sheriffs of the counties, calling on 
them to summon their bailiwicks for the purpose of electing repre- 
sentatives. Some few complied with the requisitions — most of them 
refused. The Attorney General (Fitzgibbon) threatened to proceed 
by attachment against those who had obeyed the mandate, and by a 
mixture of personal daring and ability, succeeded in preventing Mr. 
Reilly, the sheriff of Dublin, from taking the chair of an intended 
electoral meeting. Delegates were, however, selected in some quar- 

* Historical Collections relative to Belfast, p. 200. 
9* 



102 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

ters, and in October a few individuals assembled in William-street, to 
hold the congress. The debate was with closed doors; the Bishop 
of Deny was not present ; Flood attended, and detailed his plan of 
reform, in which the Catholics were not included. The omission 
gave offence to the congress, and Flood, indignant at the want of sup- 
port, retired. After three days' sitting, the congress adjourned. It 
vanished as if it were the melancholy ghost of the National Convention. 

These proceedings were alluded to in the speech which opened the 
session, January, 1785. They were characterised as " lawless out- 
rages, and unconstitutional proceedings." The address in reply applied 
the same terms to the transactions in connection with the national 
congress; and this drew from Grattan a memorable speech, and one 
which with reference to the Volunteers is historic. It marks the 
transition point when the old Volunteers ceased, and a new body com- 
posed of a different class of men, and ruled by politicians with very 
different views, commenced a career which terminated only in the 
establishment of the United Irishmen. Grattan, in the debate on the 
address, after defending the reform party and principles generally, from 
the attacks contained in the Viceroy's speech, said,* " I would now 
wish to draw the attention of the House to the alarming measure of 
drilling the lowest classes of the populace, by which a stain had been 
put on the character of the Volunteers. The old and original Volun- 
teers had become respectable, because they represented the property 
of the nation; but attempts had been made to arm the poverty of the 
kingdom. They had originally been the armed property — were they 
to become the armed beggary?" To the congress — to the parties 
who had presented petitions for reform, he addressed indignant reproof. 
They had, he said, been guilty of the wildest indiscretion; they had 
gone much too far, and, if they went on, they would overturn the laws 
of their country. 

It was an unfortunate period for the interests of Irish liberty, which 
Grattan selected, thus to dissever the ties between the Volunteers and 
him. They had begun to perceive that without the co-operation of 
the Catholics, it would be unreasonable to expect to obtain a reformed 
parliament, independent of England. The men of the Ulster Planta- 
tion were the first to recognise and act upon this obvious truth. They 
carried their toleration so far as to march to the chapel, and to attend 
mass. Had proper advantage been taken of these dispositions of the 
people, the result would have been the acquisition of a measure of 
Parliamentary Reform, which would have ensured the stability of the 
settlement of 1782. But they were left without guides, when most a 
ruling mind was required ; nor is it surprising that ulterior views 
began to influence the ardent temperament, and to excite the angry 
passions of a disappointed people. But these considerations belong to 
the history of a later period, when the Volunteers had merged into 
that great and wonderful confederacy, which, within a few years, 
threatened the stability of the English dominion in Ireland. 

The regular army had been increased to fifteen thousand men, with 
the approbation of the most distinguished founders of the constitution 
* Grattan's Speeches, vol. 1, p. 212. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 103 

of 1782 — the next act of hostility was one in which Gardiner, who had 
been an active officer in the Volunteers, took the leading part. On the 
14th of February, 1785, he moved that c£20,000 be granted to his 
Majesty for the purpose of clothing the militia. This was intended to 
be a fatal blow. It was aimed by a treacherous hand. The motion 
was supported by Langrishe, Denis, Daly, Arthur Wolfe, and Grat- 
tan. Fitzgibbon assailed the Volunteers with official bitterness. He 
reiterated the charges of Grattan, that they had admitted into their 
ranks a low description of men — their constitution was changed — they 
had degenerated into practices inimical to the peace of the country. 
They were, however, not left undefended. Curran, Hardy, and 
Newenham stept forward to their vindication. These men pointed 
out the benefits of the institution — the Volunteers in time of war had 
protected the country, and preserved internal quiet — no militia was 
then needed — why was it required in peace ? The proposition was a 
censure on the Volunteers. 

Grattan replied : — " The Volunteers had no right whatsoever to be 
displeased at the establishment of a militia ; and if they had expressed 
displeasure, the dictate of armed men ought to be disregarded by 
parliament. 

" The right honourable member had introduced the resolution upon 
the most constitutional ground. To establish a militia — he could not 
see how that affected the Volunteers; and it would be a hard case, 
indeed, if members of parliament should be afriad to urge such mea- 
sures as they deemed proper, for fear of giving offence to the Volun- 
teers. The situation of the House would be truly unfortunate if the 
name of the Volunteers could intimidate it. I am ready to allow that 
the great and honourable body of men — the primitive Volunteers, 
deserved much of their country ; but I am free to say, that they who 
now assume the name have much degenerated. It is said that they 
rescued the constitution, that they forced parliament to assert its rights, 
and therefore parliament should surrender the constitution into their 
hands. But it is a mistake to say they forced parliament : they stood 
at the back of parliament, and supported its authority ; and when they 
thus acted with parliament, they acted to their own glory ; but when 
they attempted to dictate, they became nothing. When parliament 
repelled the mandate of the Convention, they went back, and they acted 
with propriety ; and it will ever happen so when parliament has spirit 
to assert its own authority. 

" Gentlemen are mistaken if they imagine that the Volunteers are 
the same as they formerly were, when they committed themselves in 
support of the state, and the exclusive authority of the parliament of 
Ireland, at the Dungannon meeting. The resolutions published of late 
hold forth a very different language. 

" Gentlemen talk of ingratitude. I cannot see how voting a militia 
for the defence of the country is ingratitude to the Volunteers. The 
House has been very far from ungrateful to them. While they acted 
with parliament, parliament thanked and applauded them ; but in 
attempting to act against parliament, they lost their consequence. 
Ungrateful ! Where is the instance ? It cannot be meant, that because 



104 HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

the House rejected the mandate which vile incendiaries had urged the 
Convention to issue ; because, when such a wound was threatened to 
the constitution, the House declared that it was necessary to mantain 
the authority of parliament, that therefore the House was ungrateful!" 
f The Volunteers lingered some years after this. They held annual 
reviews — they passed addresses and resolutions — but, henceforward 
their proceedings were without effect. The details of their decay do 
not belong to the history of the Volunteers of 1782. That body prac- 
tically expired with the Convention of Dublin. Their old leaders fell 
away — the men of wealth abandoned them, and new men — men, not 
without generous qualities and high ambition, but with perilous and 
revolutionary views — succeeded to the control. And when, at length, 
the Volunteers having come into direct collision with the regular army, 
and wisely declined contest, the government, issued its mandate, that 
every assemblage of the body should be dispersed by force, even the phan- 
tom of the army of Ireland had passed away from the scene for ever.* 

One cannot look back without mournful pride to the gorgeous 
pageant of the Volunteers. At a time of public danger and distress, 
when that government whose crimes had lost America to the Crown 
of England, left the shores of her next greatest dependency exposed 
to the descent of the invader, one hundred thousand men, theretofore 
unused to arms, suddenly appeared in the form and power of a great 
army to protect the country. Self-clothed and self-disciplined, their 
organization appeared miraculous. Without any revenue derived 
from, the state, they maintained the attitude, and discharged the 
\ duties of a national army and militia. Prepared to repel by force a 
foreign enemy, they employed their arms to preserve peace, and vin- 
dicate the law at home. 

But having effected the original purposes of their institution, they 
turned their attention to objects still more important. They found the 
trade of their country shackled by an oppressive rival — her industry 
paralysed — her manufacturers starving. They determined to remove 
all obstacles to the developement of her abundant resources, and we 
have seen how they effected Free Trade. 

The secret of their strength having been taught them by success, 
they proceeded to establish constitutional freedom on the foundations 
of commercial prosperity ; and by the same demonstrations of power, 
they produced a still more brilliant effect upon the servility of an Irish, 
and the usurpations of an English Parliament. The constitution of 
1782 was their second and their greatest victory. 

That they failed in consummating their designs — that they were 
unable to render perpetual the liberty they had achieved, is attribut- 
able to many causes. Grattan refused to advance a step beyond the 
Declaration of Rights ; Lord Charlemont was not a statesman ; Flood 
and Charlemont were intolerant. 

The Dublin Convention was an error. It was a rival parliament ; 
and as such it violated the spirit of the constitution. It was the par- 

* A few country corps had fixed upon holding a review at Poah, in the county of Antrim. 
The army marched to the spot to disperse them ; but the Volunteers avoided assembling, 
and thus gave up the ghost.— Dr. Mac Nevin's Pieces of Irish History, p.. 58. 



HISTORY OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 105 

liament of a minority, for it excluded the Catholics from a participa- 
tion in the benefits it proposed to confer ; the nation was indifferent to 
the contests of two rival assemblies, one the organ of a government 
the other of a faction. As a great measure of revolution, the Conven 
tion would have been all powerful, if the Volunteers were ready to 
back its mandates with their arms, and the people with their sympa 
thies. But the Volunteers were irresolute — the people were apa 
thetic. It was a madness to suppose that a mere obligarchy could 
contend with the power of England. And in the hour when they 
required every assistance that could be procured, with wanton folly 
they estranged the affections of a brave and faithful people. — Herein is 
contained a lesson that may be usefully studied, and never more use- 
fully than at present. England was weak, Ireland powerful — England 
assailed by French and American hostility, and sinking under domes- 
tic embarrassments, could resist no demand which Ireland chose to 
make. There existed in Ireland every element of constitutional or 
absolute freedom — all the forms of government, a Legislature, and an 
Executive, a standing army — there was a wealthy and ancient aristo- 
cracy, a bold and martial people. Yet in this great and powerful 
machine there was one principle of self-destruction, working stealthily 
but surely the ruin and the disorganization of its power. Intolerance 
was that evil and malignant principle — a principle planted in Ireland 
by English policy, and now conservative of English power. That fatal 
disunion — that mixed feeling of religious hatred, personal suspicion 
and contempt with which the Catholics of Ireland were regarded by 
the Protestant people, gave way for a while to the enthusiasm of 
volunteering, and seemed to be exercised by the Convention of Dun- 
gannon. But it revived after the concessions of parliamentary inde- 
pendence. The aristocratic party — the nobility of the pale — were 
contented with their own triumph, and jealous of all participation in 
their glory. They churlishly refused to the Catholics their political 
rights. It became an easy task for the dark and evil genius of the 
greatest of English ministers to ripen the seeds of division. The 
Catholics were disgusted — the Protestans deceived. If Grattan had 
gone on with the movement, his tolerant genius would possibly have 
influenced the timid spirit of Charlemont, or rendered his bigotry as 
harmless as it was contemptible. The Volunteers would have become 
a national body, not an aristocratic institution ; and the constitution of 
1782, would have withstood eveiy effort of England to destroy that 
" final adjustment." 

To the historian of United Irishmen, and the men of Ninety-Eight, 
belong the details of the decline of the Volunteers. Out of the embers 
of that institution grew the Whig Club, and that other powerful con- 
federacy of which Theobald Wolfe Tone was the founder. These 
two bodies partook of the character of their parents. The Whig 
Club established by Lord Charlemont, led a dilettante life and died of 
its own debility — the United Irishmen were deep, bold, and sagacious, 
and but for the errors of a few leaders, would have overthrown the 
empire of England in their country, and establised on its ruins an 
Irish Republic. 



APPENDIX. 



VOLUNTEERS, 



Abstract of the effective Men in the different Volunteer Corps, whose Dele- 
gates met at Dungannon, and those who acceded to their Resolutions, and 
to the requisitions of the House of Commons of Ireland, the 16th of April, 
1782. 

Commander in Chief. — Earl of Charlemont. 

GENERALS. 

Duke of Leinster. Earl of Tyrone. Earl of Aldborough, 

Lord De Vesci. Sir B. Denny. Right Hon. George Ogle. 

Sir James Tynte. Earl of Clanricarde. Earl of Muskerry. 

Sir William Parsons, Honourable J. Butler. Right Hon. Henry King.* 

PROVINCE OF ULSTER. 

Dungannon Meeting, 153 Corps, 26,280 

Twenty-one Corps since acceded, ...«,. 3,938 

Infantry since acceded, Two Battalions, 1^250 

Six Corps of Cavalry, 200 

Eight Corps of Artillery, 420 

__ 32,088 
Ulster Corps which have acceded since the 1st of April, 35 of In- 
fantry and one Battalion, 1,972 

Two of Cavalry, '92 

Total of Ulster, . . . ; . 34,152 

Artillery. 

Six pounders, \q 

Three pounders, 10 

Howitzers, ......... 6 

Total Pieces of Artillery, : 32 

PROVINCE OF CONNAUGHT. 

Ballinasloe Meeting, 59 Corps, 6,897 

Thirty-one Corps of Infantry, who since acceded, . . . 5,781 

Cavalry, eight Corps, '49I 

Artillery, 250 

. . 13,349 

Acceded since 1st of April, four Corps of Infantry and one of Cav- 

all T> 987 

Total of Connaught, .... 14,336 

* Besides these, the Volunteers, at their Provincial Reviews, elected their Reviewing 
Generals. 5 



APPENDIX. J 07 

Artillery. 

Six pounders, 10 

Three pounders, 10 

Total pieces of Artillery, . 20 

PROVINCE OF MUNSTER. 

City and County of Cork, 5,123 

68 Other Corps of Infantry in the Province, .... 7,987 

Cavalry of the Province returned, 15 Corps, .... 710 

Artillery, 9 Corps, 221 



14.041 
Acceded since 1st April, 15 Corps of Infantry, . . . 3,921 

Two Corps of Cavalry, 94 

Total of Munster, 18,056 

Artillery. 

Six pounders, 14 

Three pounders, 14 

Howitzers, 4 

Total Pieces of Artillery, . 32 

/ — 

PROVINCE OF LEINSTER. 

139 Corps whose Delegates met at Dublin, April 17, 1^2, . 16,98 3 

10 Corps of Cavalry who before acceded and no Delegates sent, 58^ 

19 ditto of Infantry, • 4,398 

Artillery, 9 Corps, 322 

Total of Leinster, 22,283 

Artillery. 

Nine pounders, ........ 2 

Six pounders, 16 

Three pounders, , . . 14 

Howitzers, ......... 6 

Total Pieces of Artillery, . 38 

Total Numbers 

Ulster, 34,152 

Munster, 18,056 

Connaught, 14,336 

Leinster, , 22,283 

Total, .... 88,827 

22 Corps have also acceded but made no returns; estimated at 12,000 

Making in all nearly a general grand total of ... 100,000 

Artillery 130 Pieces. 



J08 APPENDIX. 

. LIST AND NAMES OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 

Aghavoe Loyals. — Associated July 1st, 1782 ; scarlet, faced blue. Captain 
Robert White. 

Aldborough Legion. — August, 1777 ; scarlet, faced black, silver lace. Col- 
onel Earl of Aldborough. 

Ards Battalion. — Colonel Patrick Savage. 

Ardee Rangers. 

Arlington Light Cavalry. — September 18th, 1779; scarlet, faced green, yel- 
low buttons. Captain George Gore; Lieutenant J. Warburton; Cornet 
Jonathan Chetwood. 

Arran Phalanx. — Scarlet, faced white. Captain Dawson ; Lieutenant Fred- 
erick Gore ; Earl of Arran. 

Armagh Volunteers. 

Athy Independents. — September, 1779 ; scarlet, faced white. Captain Ro- 
bert Johnson. 

Athy Volunteers. — September, 1779 ; scarlet, faced white. 

Athy Rangers. — Captain Weldon. 

Attorneys' Corps. 

Aughnacloy Battalion. — Scarlet, faced white. Colonel P. Alexander. 

Aughnacloy Volunteers. — Captain Thomas Forsyth. 

Ashfield Volunteers. — Blue, faced blue. Captain H. Clements. 

Aughrim Corps of Cork. — March 17th, 1778 ; scarlet, faced scarlet, edged 
white. Colonel Richard Longfield ; Major Edward Jameson ; Captain 
Samuel Rowland. 

Aughrim Light Horse. — Scarlet, faced pea-green. Colonel Walter Lambert 

Bantry Volunteers. — July 12th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced black, edged white. 

Ballintemple Forresters. — July 12th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced blue. Captain 
Stewart. 

Ballyroom Cavalry. 

Barony Rangers. — March 17th, 1778; scarlet, faced blacK. Colonel Andrew 
Armstrong ; Captain Robert Shervington. 

Barony of Forth Corps. — January 1st, 1779 ; scarlet, faced blue. Major 
Hughes. 

Ballyleek Rangers. — 1779 ; scarlet, faced white, gold lace. Colonel John 
Montgomery. 

Bandon Cavalry. — Colonel S. Stawell ; Major John Travers. 

Bandon Independent Company. — Colonel Francis Bernard ; Captain Robert 
Seale. 

Ballina and Ardnaree (loyal) Volunteers. — July 1st, 1779; scarlet, faced 
black. Colonel Right Honourable Henry King; Major Henry Cary. 

Ballymascanlan Rangers, (Co. Louth). Captain R. M'Neale. 

Belfast Union. — June 12th, 1778 ; scarlet, faced blue. Captain Lyons. 

Belfast Light Dragoons. — March 26th, 1781; scarlet, faced green, silver 
lace. Captain Burden. 

Belfast Battalion. — April, 1779; scarlet, faced black. Col. Stewart Banks; 
Major Brown. 

Belfast Volunteer Company. — April Gth, 1778 ; blue, faced blue, laced hats. 
Captain Brown ; Captain S. M'Tier. 

Belfast First Volunteer Company. — March 17th, 1778 ; scarlet, faced black- 
Captain Waddel Cunningham. 

Belfast United Volunteer Companies. 

Blackwater Volunteers. — Colonel Richard Aldwortn; Lieutenant Colonel 
Robert Stanard. 

Blackpool Association,— Colonel John Harding; Lieut. Col. Thomas Barry. 



APPENDIX. J 09 

Blarney Volunteers. — Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Gibbs ; Captain Edward 
O'Donnoghue. 

Burros Volunteers. — 1779 ; scarlet, faced black. Colonel Kavanagh. 

Burros in Ossory Rangers. — August 1st, 1779; scarlet, faced black, silver 
epaulettes. Captain Commandant James Stephens ; Lieutenant Eras- 
mus Burro wes ; Ensign Walter Stevens. 

Boyne Volunteer Corps. — Colonel John Bagwell ; Major John Bass ; Lieu- 
tenant Charles Willcocks. 

Builders' Corps. — November 4th, 1781 ; blue, faced blue, edged scarlet. 
Colonel Read. 

Burros-a-kane Volunteers. — Major Thomas Stoney. 

Castlebar Independents. — March 17th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced deep green. 
Colonel Patrick Randal M' Donald. 

Castlebar Volunteers. — Lieutenant Colonel Jordan, M. S. 

Carrick-on-Shannon Infantry. — August, 1779 ; scarlet, faced blue. Lieut. 
Colonel Peyton. 

Castle Mount Garret Volunteers. — 1778 ; scarlet, faced deep green. Colo- 
nel D. G. Browne ; Lieutenant John Henry. 

Callan Union. — April 1st, 1779 ; green, edged white. Captain Elliott. 

Caledon Volunteers. — Captain James Dawson. 

Carlow Association.— -September 1st, 1779 ; scarlet, faced black. Major 
Eustace, M. S. ; Lieutenant and Adjutant T. Proctor. 

Carrick-on-Suir Union. — Captain Edward Morgan Mandeville. 

Carberry Independent Company. — Captain John Townshend. 

Carrickfergus Company. — April 3rd, 1779; scarlet, faced pea-green. Cap- 
tain Marriot Dalway ; Lieutenant Rice. 

Carton Union. — Colonel H. Cane. 

Castlecomer Hunters and Light Infantry. — Colonel Lord Wandesford. 

Castledermot Volunteers. — Captain Robert Power. 

Castledurrow Light Horse. — August, 1778 ; green, edged white. Captain 
Richard Lawrenson. 

Castledurrow Volunteers. — July 1st, 1779 ; green, edged white, silver lace. 
Captain Bathorn. 

Castletown Union. — Captain Com. Rt. Hon. T. Conally. 

Cavan (County) Volunteers.— Colonel Enery. 

Cavan Independent Volunteers. 

Carlow (County) Legion. — September 1st, 1779 ; scarlet, faced lemon co- 
lour. Colonel J. Rochfort ; Major Henry Bunburry. 

Charleville Infantry. — January 4th, 1779; blue, faced scarlet. Colonel 
Chidley Coote ; Major H. George Hatfield. 

Clanricarde Brigade. — June, 1782; scarlet, faced blue. Major D'Arcy. 

Clanricarde Infantry. — Captain David Power. 

Clanricarde Cavalry. — Colonel Peter Daly ; Captain P. D'Arcy. 

Clanwilliam Union. — Colonel Earl of Clanwilliam ; Captain Alleyn. 

Clane Rangers. — September, 1779 ; scarlet, faced white. Captain Mi- 
chael Aylmer. 

Clonmel Independents. — Colonel Bagwell. 

Cloulonan Light Infantry. — Colonel George Clibborne. 

Cork Independent Artillery. — March 17th, 1781 ; blue, faced scarlet, gold 
lace. Colonel Richard Hare. 

Constitution Regiment (Co. Down). — Scarlet, faced yellow. Captain Ford ; 
Captain Gawin Hamilton. 

Coleraine Volunteers. — Colonel Richardson; Lieutenant-Colonel Canning ; 
Major Lyle. 

Coolock Independents, North. — Captain James Walker. 
10 



110 APPENDIX. 

Coolock Independents. — Colonel Richard Talbot. 

Comber Battalion. — Colonel David Ross. 

Connaught Volunteers. 

Counagh Rangers. — Colonel Percival. 

Conner Volunteers. 

Cork Union. — Henry Hickman, Commandant. 

Cork Cavalry. — Colonel William Chetwynd ; Major John Gilman ; Captain 
John Smyth. 

Crossmolina Infantry and Artillery. 

Culleuagh Rangers. — Colonel Barrington. 

Culloden Volunteer Society of Cork. — Colonel Benjamin Bousfield ; Cap- 
tain Lieutenant Henry Newsom. 

Curraghmore Rangers. — Captain Shee. 

Delviu Volunteers.— Colonel Thomas Smyth. 

Donegal First Regiment. — Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton. 

Doneraile Rangers. — Colonel Right Hon. Lord Doneraile ; Captain Nicholas 
G. Evans. 

Down Volunteers. — Captain Henry West. 

Down First Regiment (2nd Battalion.) — Blue, faced orange. Col. Stewart. 

Down Fuzileers. — Captain Trotter. 

Drogheda Association. — 1777 ; scarlet, faced Pomona green, gold laced hats. 
Colonel Mead Ogle ; Lieutenant-Colonel H. Montgomery Lyons ; Ma- 
jor William Cheshier ; Captain Oliver Fairtlough ; Lieutenant William 
Holmes ; Lieutenant John Ackland. 

Dromore Volunteers, (Co. Kerry). — scarlet, faced green. Colonel John 
Mahony. 

Drumahave Blues. — Lieutenant Armstrong. 

Drumbridge Voluuteers. — Major A. G. Stewart. 

Dublin Volunteers. — October 6th, 1778 ; blue, faced blue, edged scarlet, 
yellow buttons. Colonel Duke of Leinster ; Lieutenant-Colonel H. 
Monck ; Captain N. Warren ; Lieutenant E. Medlicott. 

Dublin (Co.) Light Dragoons. — August, 1779; scarlet, faced black. Colo- 
nel Right Hon. Luke Gardiner ; Captain Everard. 

Dublin Independent Volunteers. — April 24th, 1780; scarlet, faced dark green. 
Colonel Henry Grattan ; Lieut. Colonel Right Hon. H. Flood; Major 
Samuel Canier. 

Duhallow Rangers. — Colonel the Hon. Charles George Percival : Lieutenant 
Colonel William Wrixon. 

Duleek Light Company. — July, 1778 ; scarlet, faced black. Captain Thos. 
Trotter. 

Dunkerrin Volunteers. — June 20th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced black. Colonel J. 
F. Rolleston. 

Dunlavin Light Dragoons. — 1777 ; white, faced black, silver lace. Colonel 
M. Saunders ; Captain Charles Oulton. 

Dunlavin Corps. 

Dunmore Rangers. — August, 1779 ; green, edged white. Colonel Sir Rob- 
ert Staples, Bart. 

Dundalk Independent Light Dragoons. — Captain Thomas Read. 

Dundalk Horse. — Scarlet, faced green. I. W. Foster, Esq. 

Dundalk Artillery. 

Dungarvan Volunteers. — Captain Boate. 

Dungiven Battalion. — June 14th, 1778 ; scarlet, faced black. Major Tho- 
mas Bond ; Captain Thomas Fanning. 

Dunmore Volunteers. 

Dungannon Battalion. — Major O'Duffin. 



APPENDIX. HI 

Durrow Light Dragoons. 
Dungannou Volunteers. — Captain Richardson. 

Echlin Vale Volunteers. — October 19th, 1778 ; scarlet, faced white. Cap- 
tain Charles Echlin. 
Edenderry Union. — May 1st, 1777: scarlet, faced black. Captain Shaw 

Cartland. 
Edgeworthstown Battalion. — 1779 ; blue, faced scarlet. Colonel Sir W. G. 

Newcomen, Bart. 
Eglish Rangers. — August 29th, 1797 ; scarlet, faced black, silver epaulettes. 

Major Thomas Berry ; Captain John Drought; Lieutenant and Adjutant 

J. Clarke. 
Ennis Volunteers. — October 12th, 1778 ; scarlet, faced black. Colonel Wm. 

Blood. 
Enniscorthy Light Dragoons. — Colonel Phaire ; Captain Charles Dawson. 
Enniscorthy Artillery. — Colonel Joshua Pounden ; Major William Bennett. 
Eyrecourt Buffs. — June 1st, 1779 ; scarlet, faced buff, gold epaulettes. Col- 
onel Giles Eyre ; Captain Stephen Blake. 
Independent Enniskilleners. — Scarlet, faced black. Captain James Arm- 
strong. 
Farbill Light Dragoons. — Captain Robert Cook. 
Fartullagh Rangers. — October 1st, 1779 ; scarlet, faced blue. Colonel Roch- 

fort Hume. 
Fethard Independents. — Major Matthew Jacob. 

First Irish Volunteers, (Co. Wexford). — Lieutenant Colonel Derenzy. 
Finea Independents. — May 1st, 1779 ; scarlet, faced blue. Colonel Coyne 

Nugent. 
Fingal Light Dragoons. — June 27th, 1783 ; scarlet, faced white. Captain 

Thomas Baker. 
Finglass Volunteers. — Colonel Segrave. 

Fore Infantry Loyalists. — Major Wm. Pollard ; Captain Nugent. 
Fore Cavalry and Finea Rangers. — Colonel Wm. Gore; (Fiuea Rangers). 
French Park Light Horse. — June, 1779 : scarlet, faced black, edged white, 

gold lace. Lieutenant Colonel Edward M'Dermott: Lieutenant Owen 

M'Dermott. 
Galway Volunteers. — Colonel Richard Martin ; Major John Blake. 
Galway (County) Volunteers. 
Garrycastle Light Cavalry. 

Glanmire Union. — Colonel Henry Mannix; Captain Simon Dring. 
Glenboy and Killemat Regiment. — August 1st, 1779 ; scarlet, faced blue, 

silver lace. Colonel Cullen. 
Glendermot Battalion. — Colonel George Ash. 
Glin Royal Artillery. — April, 1776 ; blue, faced blue, scarlet cuffs and capes, 

gold lace. Colonel J. Fitzgerald, Knight of Glin; Lieutenant Colonel 

Thomas Burgess. 
Glorious Memory Batallion. — 1780 ; scailet, faced grass green. Colonel T. 

Morris Jones. 
Goldsmiths' Corps. — March 17th, 1779 ; blue, faced scarlet, gold lace. 

Captain Benjamin O'Brien. 
Gort Light Dragoons. — Major James Galbraith. 

Gortin Volunteers. — Hon. Arthur Colonel Hamilton ; Lieutenant Lennon. 
Graigue (Q. C.) Volunteers. — May 1st, 1779 ; blue, faced scarlet, silver lace. 

Colonel. B. Bagnal. 
Granard Infantry Union Brigade. — May 1st, 1782 ; scarlet, faced blue. 

Captain C. E. Hamilton. 
Granard Volunteers. — Colonel Earl of Granard ; Lieut. Robert Holmes. 



112 APPENDIX. 

Hanover Society. — Colonel Richard Hungerford. 

Hollywood Volunteers. — Captain John Kennedy. 

Hibernian Light Dragoons. 

Ida Light Dragoons. — Major Fitzgerald. 

Imokilly Horse, (County Cork). — White, edged scarlet. Colonel Roche ; 
Lieutenant-Colonel Robert M'Carthy. 

Imokilly Blues. — Colonel Robert Uniacke Fitzgerald. 

First Volunteers of Ireland. — July 1st, 1766 ; scarlet, faced blue. Colonel 
Sir Vesey Colclough, Bart. 

Irish Brigade. — June 5th, 1782; scarlet, faced grass green, silver lace. 
Captain Charles Abbott. 

Iveagh First Battalion. — Colonel Sir Richard Johnston. 

Iveik Volunteers. — Colonel Right Hon. John Ponsonby ; Major Osborne. 

Inchegelagh Volunteers. — Captain Commandant Jasper Masters ; Lieutenant 
John Boyle. 

Kanturk Volunteers. — Colonel Right Hon. Earl of Egmont. 

Kell's Association. — November 1st, 1779 ; scarlet, faced green. Lieutenant* 
Colonel Benjamin Morris. 

Kerry Legion. — Colonel Arthur Blennerhasset ; Major Godfrey. 

Kile Volunteers. — August 1st, 1779 ; scarlet, faced blue, silver lace. Colo- 
nel Charles White. 

Kilcullen Rangers. — September, 1779 ; scarlet, faced white. Captain Keat- 

._ iu S- 

Kuconrsey Union. — Major Bagot. 

Kilcooly True Blues.— 1779 ; blue, faced white. Colonel Sir William 
Barker, Bart. 

Kildare Infantry. — Captain James Spencer. 

Kilkenny Rangers. — January 2nd. 1770 ; green, with silver lace. Colonel 
Mossom; Major Wemys. 

Kilkenny Horse. — Colonel Cuffe. 

Kilkenny Volunteers. — June 10th, 1779 ; blue, faced scarlet, gold lace. — 
Colonel Thomas Butler; Lieutenant-Colonel Knaresborough ; Captains 
Laffan, Shanahan, Purcell ; Ensign Davis. 

Kilkenny Independents. — Major Roche, 

Kdlala Infantry. 

Killimoon Battalion and Artillery Company. — Robert White, Adjutant. 

Killinchy (First) Independent Volunteer Company. — Captain Gawin Hamil- 
ton. 

Kilmore Light Infantry. — Matthew Forde, Jun. 

Kinnilea and Kirrikuriky Union. — Colonel Thomas Roberts ; Lieutenant- 
Colonel Thomas Herrick ; Major John Roberts. 

Kinsale Volunteers. — Colonel Kearny ; Captain Leary. 

Kiilivan Volunteers. — December 25th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced green. Major 
William Smith. 

Kilmain Horse and Infantry. 

Knox's Independent Troop. 

Lagan Volunteers. 

Lame Royal Volunteers. 

Lawyers' Corps. — April, 1779; scarlet, faced blue, gold lace. Colonel 
Townley Patten Filgate. 

Lambeg, Lisburne, &c, Volunteers. — R. H. M'Neil, Commandant. 

Lawyers' Artillery. — Captain William Holt. 

Larne Independents. — April, 1782 ; scarlet, faced blue. Captain White. 

Leap Independents.— March 17th, 1780 ; blue, faced blue, edged white. 
Colonel Jonathan Darby, 



APPENDIX. 113 

Lecale Battalion (County Down). — Lieutenant Charles McCarthy. 

Leitrim Rangers. 

Liberty Volunteers. — July, 1779 ; scarlet, faced pea green. Colonel Sir Ed- 
ward Newenham ; Captain Edward Newenham. 

Liberty Artillery. — Captain Tandy. 

Limavady Battalion. — November 7th, 1777 ; scarlet, faced black. Colonel 
James Boyle. 

Limerick Loyal Volunteers. — Brigadier General Thomas Smyth ; Captain 
George Pitt. 

Limerick Independents. — September, 1776 ; scarlet, faced green, silver lace. 
Colonel John Prendergast; Major C. Powell. 

Limerick Volunteers. 

Limerick Cavalry. — Scarlet, faced blue, silver lace. 

Liney Volunteers. — 1778 ; scarlet, faced blue. Major George Dodwell. 

Lisburne Fusileers. — Scarlet, faced blue. Lieutenant John Kemby. 

Lismore Independent Blues. 

Londonderry Regiment. — Colonel John Ferguson. 

Londonderry Independent Volunteer Company. — Captain J. Ferguson. 

Londonderry Fusileers. — June 14th, 1778 ; scarlet, faced blue. Lieutenant 
A. Scott; Adjutant Henry Delap. 

Longford (County) Light Horse. — Earl of Granard. 

Longford Light Horse. — 1779 ; buff', faced black. Colonel H. Nisbitt. 

Lorha Rangers. — Captain Walsh. 

Loughal Volunteers. 

Loughgall Volunteers. — Captain J. Blackall. 

Loughinshillen Volunteers. 

Loughinshillen Battalion. — General Right Hon. Thomas Conolly ; Colonel 
Staples ; Lieut. Colonel Dawson ; Major John Downing. 

Lower Iveagh Legion. 

Lowtherstown, &c, Independent Volunteers. — 1779 ; scarlet, faced black. 
Colonel William Irvine. 

Maguire's Bridge Volunteers. 

Magherafelt (First) Volunteers. — June, 1773 ; scarlet, faced black. Cap- 
tain A. Tracy ; Lieutenant Richard Dawson ; Ensign R. Mont- 
gomery. 

Mallow Independent Volunteers. 

Mallow Boyne Cavalry and Infantry. — (Cavalry) Captain Rogerson Cotter; 
(Infantry) Captain Wm. Gallway. 

Maryborough Volunteers. — May, 1776 ; scarlet, faced black. Colonel Sir 
J. Parnell, Bart. 

Meath Volunteers. 

Merchants' Corps. — June 9th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced blue, gold lace. Cap- 
tain Theos. Dixon; Captain C. M. M'Mahon. 

Merchants' Artillery. — Captain George Maquay. 

Mitchelstown Independent Light Dragoons. — Scarlet, faced black. Colo» 
nel Right Hon. Lord Kingsborough ; Lieut. Col. Henry Cole Bowen, 
Esq. ; Major James Badham Thornhill. 

Monaghan Independents. 

Monaghan Rangers. — January 10th, 1780 ; scarlet, faced white. Colonel 
William Forster. 

Monaghan First Battalion. — Col. J. Montgomery. 

Monastereven Volunteers. — October, 1778 ; scarlet, faced white. Captain 
Houlton Anderson. 

Mote Light Infantry.— 1778 ; scarlet, faced pea-green. Colonel Sir H. Lynch 
Blosse, Bart. 

10* 



114 APPENDIX. 

Mountain Rangers. — August 15th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced black. Colonel Ber- 
nard ; Major George Clarke ; Captain John Drought. 

Mountrnelick Volunteers. 

Mountnorris Volunteers. 

Moycashel Association. — Col. Hon. Robert Rochfort; Captain John Lyons. 

Mullingar Volunteers. — Colonel Earl of Grauard ; Lieut. Colonel William 
Judge. 

Munster Volunteers. 

Muskerry True Blue Light Dragoons. — Colonel Robert Warren ; Lieutenant 
Colonel R. Hutchinson; Major Samuel Swete. 

Muskerry True Blues. 

Muskerry Volunteers. — Captain Commandant Thomes Barker, Esq. 

Mullingar Association. — Captain Robert Moore. 

Nass Rangers. — December 10th, 1779; scarlet, faced white. Captain Com- 
mandant R. Neville. 

Newberry Loyal Musqueteers. 

Newmarket Rangers. — Colonel Boyle Aldworth ; Major Wm. Allen. 

Newport Volunteers. — Captain Richard Waller. 

New Ross Independents. — November 17th, 1777 ; scarlet, faced black. 
Colonel B. Elliot. 

Newcastle and Donore Union. — Captain Verschoyle. 

Newry Volunteers, (1st Company). — Captain Benson. 

Newry Volunteers, (3rd Company). — Captain David Bell. 

Newry Rangers. — Captain Benson. 

Newtown and Castlecomer Battalion. — Captain Commandant Robert Stew- 
art. 

Newry 1st Regiment, or Newry Legion. 

Offerlane Blues. — October 10th, 1773; scarlet, faced blue, silver lace. Col- 
onel Luke Flood. 

Orior Grenadiers. — September 13th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced black. Captain 
James Dawson. 

Ormond Independents. — Colonel Toler; Lieutenant Wm. Greenshields. 

Ormond Union. — Captain Ralph Smith. 

Ossory True Blues. — July 1st, 1779 ; scarlet, edged blue. Colonel Edward 
Flood; Major Robert Palmer. 

Owzle Galley Corps. — Captain Theo. Thompson. 

Parsontown Loyal Independents. — Feb. 15th, 1776; scarlet, faced black, 
silver lace. Col. Sir William Parsons, Bart. ; Major L. Parsons ; Cap- 
tain B. B. Warburton ; Lieutenant Edward Tracy. 

Passage Union Volunteers. 

Portarlington Infantry. — September 18th, 1779; scarlet, faced yellow, silver 
lace. Major Commandant W. H. Legrand ; Captain James Stannus. 
Captain Henry Carey ; Ensign Annesley Carey. 

Raford Brigade, (Light Cavalry.) — Dec. 26th, 1779; scarlet, edged blue, 
gold lace. Colonel Denis Daly. 

Rakenny Volunteers. — Colonel Theophilus Clements. 

Ralphsdale Light Dragoons. — Scarlet, faced yellow. Captain John Tandy. 

Ramelton Volunteers. — Captain James Watt. 

Raphoe Battalion. — July 1st, 1778 ; scarlet, faced blue. Lieutenant- Colo- 
nel Nisbitt. 

Rathdown Carbineers. — Major Edwards. 

Rathdown Light Dagoons, (Co. Dublin.) — June, 1779; scarlet, faced black. 
Colonel Sir John Allen Johnson, Bart. 

Rathdowny Volunteers. — Feb., 1776 ; scarlet, faced white. Colonel J. 
Palmer. 



APPENDIX. 115 

Rathangan Union. — August 2nd, 1782 ; scarlet, faced white. Captain Wm. 

Montgomery- 
Rockingham Volunteers. — September 7th, 1779 ; blue, faced blue, edged 
scarlet, yellow buttons. Colonel Nixon ; Major Chamney. 

Rosanallis Volunteers. — July 1st, 1774; scarlet, faced blue, silver lace. 
Colonel Richard Croasdale ; Major George Sandes ; Captain L. Sandes ; 
Captain J. Sabatier ; Captain A. Johnson ; Lieutenant Wm. Tracey. 

Roscrea Blues. — July 21st, 1779; blue, faced blue, gold lace. Colonel L. 
Parsons. 

Roscommon Independent Forresters. — May 1st, 1779 ; scarlet, faced green. 
Colonel R. Waller; Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas M'Dermott; Major 
Edward Dowling. 

Ross Union Rangers. — August 1st, 1779 ; scarlet, faced green. Colonel 
Drake. 

Ross Volunteer Guards. — September 20th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced black. 
Captain Lieut. H. T. Houghton. 

Roxboi'ough Volunteers. — 1777 ; scarlet, faced blue, silver epaulettes. 
Colonel William Perse. 

Royal 1st Regiment, (Co. Antrim.) — Scarlet, faced blue, gold lace. Major 
A. M'Manus. 

Saintfield Light Infantry. — Captain Nicholas Price. 

Skreen Corps. — Lord Killeen. 

Skreen Corps of Dragoons. — Colonel John Dillon ; Captain James Cheney. 

Slane Volunteers. — Lieutenant John Forbes. 

Slievardagh Light Dragoons. 

Sligo Loyal Volunteers. — May 25th, 1779; scarlet, faced white. Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Ormsby. 

Society Volunteers of Deny. — March 17th, 1782 ; scarlet, faced blue. 
Captain William Moore. 

Strabane Battalion. — Lieutenant-Colonel Charleton. 

Sradbally Volunteers. — October 12th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced blue, silver lace. 
Colonel Thomas Cosby. 

Strokestown Light Horse. — November, 1779 ; scarlet, faced yellow. Ma- 
jor Gilbert Conry. 

Talbotstown Invincibles. — December, 1780 ; scarlet, faced deep green. 
Colonel Nicholas Westby ; Major John Smith ; Lieutenant F. W. 
Greene. 

Tallow Blues. — Captain Commandant George Bowles. 

Tipperary Light Dragoons and Infantry. — Lieutenant-Colonel Baker. 

Tipperary Volunteers. — May 1st, 1776; scarlet, faced black, silver lace. 
Captain James Roe. 

Tralee Royal Volunteers. — January 7th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced blue, gold 
lace. Colonel Sir Barry Denny, Bart. 

Trim Infantry.— July 12th, 1779; scarlet, faced black. Captain W. H. 
Finlay. 

Trim and Ratoath Volunteers. — Colonel Earl of Mornington (afterwards Mar- 
quis of Wellesley). 

True Blue Legion (City of Cork).— Colonel the Right Hon. Earl of Shan- 
non ; Lieutenant Colonel Morrison. 

True Blue and Society Volunteers. 

True Blue Legion (Co. of Cork). — Colonel Right Hon. Earl of Shannon; 
Lieutenant Colonel James Morrison ; Major Michael Westropp. 

True Blue Volunteers (Londonderry). — Captain Lieutenant Moore ; Captain 
William Lecky. 

True Blue Battalion, (Co. Fermanagh). — Colonel Archdall ; Capt. Lendrum. 



116 APPENDIX. 

Tullamore True Blue Rangers. — October 28th, 1778 ; scarlet, faced blue, 

silver lace. Colonel Charles Wm. Bury. 
Tullow Rangers. — August 10th, 1778 ; scarlet, faced black, white buttons. 

Captain Whelan. 
Tully Ash Real Volunteers. — October 15th, 1783 ; scarlet, faced black, silver 

lace. Colonel J. Dawson Lawrence; Captain A. Dawson Lawrence. 
Tyrawley Rangers. 
Tyrrell True Blues. 
Tyrrel's Pass Volunteers. — 1776 ; gray, faced scarlet, silver lace. Captain 

Hon. Robert Moore. 
Tyrone First Regiment. — July, 1780 ; scarlet, faced deep blue. Colonel 

James Stewart; Lieutenant Colonel Charlton. 
Ulster Volunteer True Blue Battalion. — September 3rd, 1779; blue, faced 

scarlet. Major Robert Barden ; Lieutenant George Tandy. 
Ulster (First) Regiment. — Scarlet, faced white. Colonel Earl of Charle- 

mont; Lieut. Colonels Sir W. Synnot, Right Hon. Wm. Brownlow, C. 

M'Causland ; Captain G. W. Molyneux. 
Ulster (Third) Regiment. — Lieut. Colonel William Ross. 
Ulster (Fourth) Regiment.—Scarlet, faced blue. Colonel R. M'Clintock. 
Ulster Regiment. 

Ulster Regiment Artillery. — Blue, faced scarlet. Captain Thomas Ward. 
Union Regiment (Moira). — Lieut. Colonel Sharman ; Captain Patton. 
Union Rangers. — Captain Arthur Dawson. 

Union Light Dragoons (Co. Meath). — Scarlet, faced green. Captain G. Lu- 
cas Nugent. 
Union Light Dragoons (City of Dublin). — Sept. 12th, 1780 ; scarlet, faced 

green. Captain Command. R. Cornwall ; Lieut. J. Talbot Ashenhurst. 
Upper Cross and Coolock Independent Volunteers. — October, 1779 ; scarlet, 

faced black. 
Waterford Volunteer Companies (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5). 
Waterford City Royal Oak Volunteers. 

Waterford Artillery and Infantry (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.) — Captain Hanni- 
bal Wm. Dobbyn. 
Waterford Royal Battalion. — April 25th, 1770; scarlet, faced blue. Major 

William Alcock ; Captain Robert Shapland Carew. 
Waterford Artillery. — Captain Joshua Paul. 
Waterford Infantry. 
Waterford Union. — Nov. 6th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced green. Captsin Thomas 

Christmas. 
Westport Volunteers. 
Wexford Independent Light Dragoons. — Autumn of 1775 ; scarlet, faced 

royal blue. Colonel John Beauman. 
Wexford Independents. 
Wexford Independent Volunteers. — October 4th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced black. 

Captain and Adjutant Miller Clifford. 
White House Volunteers. 
Wicklow Forresters. — July 1st, 1779; scarlet, faced light blue. Colonel 

Samuel Hayes ; Captain Thomas King ; Captain Andrew Prior. 
Wicklow Association Artillery. — Blue, faced scarlet. Thomas Montgomery 

Blair, Esq. 
Willsborough Volunteers. — October, 1779 ; dark green, edged white. Col- 
onel Thomas Willis ; Major Owen Young. 
Youghal Independent Rangers. — Lieutenant C .-lonel Meade Hobson ; Major 

John Swayne. 
Youghal Independent Volunteers. — Captain Boles. 
Youghal Union. — Major Thomas Green. 



APPENDIX. 117 

LIST OF THE DELEGATES 

WHO COMPOSED THE 

GRAND NATIONAL CONVENTION. 



Those Members who never took their seats in the Convention, are in 

Italics. 
Thus marked * were confined by illness, and could not attend their duty in 

the Convention. 
Thus marked t opposed the Plan of Reform in the Convention. 
Thus marked t, appeared lukewarm in the Convention. 
Thus marked ** relinquished their patronage of rotten boroughs for the 

public benefit. 

PROVINCE OF ULSTER. 

COUNTY OF ANTRIM. 

Right Honourable Colonel John 
O'Neill, 

Honourable Colonel Rowley, 



Lieutenant-Colonel Sharman, 
Colonel T. Morris Jones, 
Captain Todd Jones. 



COUNTY OF THE TOWN OF CARRICKFERGUS. 

Rev. Mr. Bruce, | Mr. Henry Joy, junior. 

COUNTY OF ARMAGH. 

General Earl of Charlemont,** I Lieutenant-Colonel Right Honourable 

Colonel Right Honourable Sir Capel | William Brownlow, 

Molyneaux, Baronet, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Wm. Synnott, 



Captain James Dawson. 

COUNTY OF DERRY. 

Lord Bishop of Derry, I Colonel Right Honourable Edward 



Colonel Right Honourable Thomas | Carey, 

Conolly, Captain Ferguson. 

Captain Leckey, 



COUNTY OF CAVAN. 



Captain F. Saunderson, 
Lord Farnham,t 
General G. Montgomery, 



Honourable J. J. Maxwell, 
Captain Henry Clements. 



COUNTY OF DOWN. 



Cobnel Right Honourable Robert 

Stewart, 
Captain Matthew Forde, junior, 



Major Crawford, 
Colonel Patrick Savage, 
Captain Gavvn Hamilton. 



Col ^nel Irwine, 

Colonel Sir A. Brooke, Baronet, 

Captain A. C. Hamilton, 



COUNTY OF FERMANAGH. 

Jason Hazai'd, Esq. 
Captain James Armstrong. 



118 



APPENDIX. 



COUNTY OF DONEGAL. 



Colonel A. Montgomery, 
Colonel John Hamilton, 
Lieutenant-Colonel A. Stewart, 



Colonel Robert M'CHntock, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Nesbitt. 



COUNTY OF MONAGHAN. 



Colonel Charles Pow. Leslie, 
Colonel Francis Lucas, 
Colonel J. Montgomery, 



Captain William Forster, 
Captain James Hamilton. 



Colonel Stewart, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Montgomery, 
Colonel James Alexander, 



COUNTY OF TYRONE. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Charleton. 
Captain Eccles. 



PROVINCE OF CONNAUGHT. 



COUNTY OF GALWAY. 



Colonel Perse, 
Edward Kirwan, Esq. 
Peter D'Arcy, Esq., 



Colonel Latouche, 
Colonel Teneson, 
Colonel Peyton, 



Major William Burke, 
Colonel Walter Lambert. 



COUNTY OF LEITRIM. 

Colonel Cullen, 
Colonel Crofton. 

{ OF MAYO. 



Colonel Sir H. L. Blosse, Baronet, 
Colonel Domiuick G. Browne, 
Valentia Blake, Esq., 



Colonel Edmond Jordan, 

Colonel Patrick Randall M'Donnell. 



COUNTY OF ROSCOMMON. 



Colonel Arthur French, 
Captain Edward Crofton, 
Colonel Maurice Mahon, 



Colonel Christopher Lyster, 
Counsellor Dennis Kelly. 



COUNTY OF SLIGO. 



Right Honourable General Henry 

King, 
Right Honourable Joshua Cooper, 



Colonel 0'Hara,t 
Robert Lyons, Esq., 
Major George Dodwell. 



COUNTY OF THE TOWN OF GALWAY. 

Colonel Flood,** 
Counsellor Blossett, 
Lieutenant-Colonel French, 



Major Browne, 
Counsellor Martin Kirwan, 



PROVINCE OF LEINSTER. 

COUNTY OF CARLOW. 



Colonel Bagenal, 

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Bur- 
ton, Baronet, 



Colonel Rochfort, 
Captain Stewart, 
Rev. Mr. Ryan. 



APPENDIX. 



119 



COUNTY OF THE CITY OF DUBLIN. 



Colonel Sir Edward Newenham, 

Knight, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Graydon, 



Captain Warren, 
Captain Cornwall, 
Benjamin Wills, Esq. 



COUNTY OF DUBLIN. 



Colonel Sir J. A. Johnston, Baro- 
net, 
Colonel Sir J. S. Tynte, Baronet, 



Colonel Deane, 
Captain Baker, 
Major Verschoyle. 



COUNTY OF THE TOWN OF DROGHEDA. 

Colonel William Meade Ogle, | Colonel H. M. Lyons 



Colonel John Warburton, 
Colonel Joseph Palmer, 
Colonel Luke Flood, 



queen's county. 

Colonel Charles White, 
Captain James Stephens. 



COUNTY OF LOUTH; 



Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Lee, 
Major William Sheil, 
Captain Thomas Read, 



Lieutenant J. W. Foster, 
Captain Zach. Maxwell. 



Colonel Baron Dillon, 
Captain Forbes, 
Captain Trotter, 



COUNTY OF MEATH. 



Captain Ruxton, 
Captain Finiay. 



Colonel Westby, 
Colonel Hayes, 
Colonel Nixon, 



COUNTY OF WICKLOW. 

Colonel Saunders, 

Colonel the Earl of Aldoborough,* 



COUNTY OF WESTMEATH. 



Honourable Colonel Rochfort, 
Captain Lyons, 
Honourable Captain Moore, 



Lieutenant-Colonel William Thomas 

Smyth, 
Colonel Clibborn* 



COUNTY OF KILDARE. 



John Wolfe, Esq., 
Honourable John Bourke, 
Richard Neville, Esq., 



General George Ogle,t 

Sir Vesey Colclough, Baronet** 

Lord Viscount Valentia, 



Maurice Keating, Esq. 
Michael Aylmer, Esq. 



COUNTY OF WEXFORD. 

Richard Neville, Esq., 
Colonel Hatton.t 



COUNTY OF LONGFORD. 

R. L. Edgeworth, Esq., Colonel William Gleadowe 
Major Fox, comen, Baronet, 

Major Sandys* Colonel Nesbitt. 



New- 



120 



APPENDIX. 



king's county. 



General Sir William Parsons, Baro- 
net, 
Colonel John Lloyd, 



Colonel C. W. Bury, 
Colonel Johnston Darby, 
Colonel James Francis Rolleston. 



COUNTY OF KILKENNY. 



Captain Elliott, 
Counsellor Lockington. 



Lieutenant-Colonel Knaresborough, 
Major Wemys. 
Captain Helsham, 

COUNTY OF THE CITY OF KILKENNY; 

Colonel Thomas Butler, I Lieutenant-Colonel Mossom. 



PROVINCE OF MUNSTER. 



Right Honourable Lord Kingsbo- 

rough, 
Fr. Bernard, Esq.,** 
Colonel Roche, 



COUNTY OF CORK. 

Sir John Conway Colthurst, Baro- 
net, 
Major Thomas Fitzgerald. 



Colonel Bousfield, 
Colonel Bagwell, 
Richard Moore, Esq. 



COUNTY OF THE CITY OF CORK. 

Richard Fitton, Esq., 
Colonel R. Longjield. 



COUNTY OF CLARE. 



Colonel Sir H. Dillon Massey, Baro- 
net. 
Colonel Edward Fitzgerald, 



Colonel Blood, 

Major Stackpole, 

Colonel Francis Macnamara. 



COUNTY OF KERRY. 



General Sir Bany Denny, Baronet, 
Richard Townsend Herbert, Esq., 
Colonel Gunn, 



Robert Day, Esq., 
Colonel Mahony. 



COUNTY OF LIMERICK. 



Honourable Colonel Hugh Mas- 



sey,™ 
Colonel Richard Bourke 



Colonel John Fitzgerald, 
Major Powell, 
Major Croker. 

COUNTY OF THE CITY OF LIMERICK. 



Colonel Thomas Smyth, 
Colonel Edmond H. Pery, 
Colonel Prendergast, 



Major Hart* 

Henry D'Esterre, Esq. 



Thomas Hackett, Esq., 
Colonel Daniel Toler, 
Major Edward Moore, 



COUNTY OF TIPPERARY. 

Colonel Sir William Barker, 
Captain Alleyn. 



COUNTY OF WATERFORD. 

I S. J. Newport, Esq. 
John Kaine, Esq. 



John Congreve, Esq., 
Sir Richard Musgrave, 
Thomas Christmas, Esq., 

COUNTY OF THE CITY OF WATERFORt). 



Captain Robert S. Carew, 
Captain H. Alcock, 
Captain Bolton, 



Counsellor William Morris, 
Captain Dobbyn. 



APPENDIX. 121 

MUNSTER VOLUNTEERS. 



Cavalry of County Cork. 

True Blue of Cork. — 1745 ; blue, laced silver, epaulettes, white buttons. 
Colonel Richard Earl Shannon. 

JMitchelstown Light Dragoons. — July, 1774; scarlet, faced black, silver epau- 
lettes, yellow helmets, white buttons. Col. Viscount Kingsborough. 

Blackpool Horse. — 1776 ; green, laced gold, ditto epaulettes, buff' waist- 
coat and breeches. Colonel John Harding. 

Youghal Cavalry. — 1776 ; scarlet, faced white. Captain Commandant Ro- 
bert Ball. 

Bandon Cavalry.- May 6th, 1778; dark olive green jacket, halflappelled, crim- 
son velvet cuffs and collar, silver epaulettes. Col, Sampson Stawell. 

Muskerry Blue L. D. — June 1st, 1778 ; blue lappelled, edged white, silver 
epaulettes, white jackets, edged blue. Colonel Robert Warren. 

Duhallow Rangers. — 1778. Colonel Hon. Charles Percival. 

Imokilly Horse. — Sept. 1778; scarlet, faced black, yellow buttons, gold 
epaulettes, yellow helmets, white jackets, edged red. Col. Ed. Roche. 

Kilworth L. D. — July, 1779 ; scarlet, faced green, gold epaulettes, yellow 
buttons, and helmets. Colonel Stephen Marl Mountcashel. 

Imokilly Blue Horse. — 1779 ; blue, faced red. Col. Robt. Uniack Fitzgerald. 

Doneraile Rangers L. D. — July 12th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced green, edged 
white, gold epaulettes, yellow buttons and helmets, green jackets, faced 
red. Colonel St. Leger Lord Doneraile. 

Glanmire Union. — August 27th, 1779 ; deep green, faced black. Colonel 
Henry Mannix. 

Cork Cavalry. — Scarlet, faced blue, silver laced, silver epaulettes, white but- 
tons. Colonel Win. Chetwynd. 

Mallow Cavalry. — 1782 ; green jackets. Colonel Cotter. 

Great Island Cavalry. — June 24th, 1782; scarlet, faced green, gold epau- 
lettes, yellow buttons, white jackets, edged red. Capt. W. Colthurst. 
Cavalry of County Clare. 

County Clare Horse. — July 24th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced dark green, silver 
epaulettes and buttons, white juckets, green cape. Col. E. Fitzgerald. 

Sixmile-Biidge Independents. — Colonel Francis M'Namara. 
Cavalry of County Kerry. 

Kerry Legion Cavalry. — Jan. 1779 ; scarlet, faced black, edged white, sil- 
ver epaulettes, white buttons. Major Command. Rowland Bateman. 

Woodford Rangers. — Colonel Win. Townsend Gun. 
Cavalry of County Limerick. 

Kilfinnan L. D — 1777 ; scarle.t jackets, faced Pomona green, silver laced, 
and epaulettes. Col. John Fitzgerald, Knight of Glin. 

County Limerick Horse. — June 8th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced black, yellow but- 
tons, buff' waistcoat and breeches, yellow helmets. Col, John Croker. 

Coonagh Rangers.— June, 1779 ; scarlet, faced black, yellow buttons. Col. 
Robert Lord Muskerry. 

County Limerick Royal Horse. — June 28th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced blue. Col. 
Hon. Hugh Massey. 

Small County Union L. D. — Scarlet, faced green. Col. John Grady. 

True Blue Horse.— Colonel William Thomas Monsel. 

Connello Light Horse. — Scarlet, faced goslin green, dark green jackets. Col. 
Thomas Odell. 

Riddlestown Hussars. — Scarlet, faced blue, silver epaulettes, white buttons, 
white jackets faced blue. Col. Gerrald Bleanerhasset. 
11 



122 APPENDIX. 

Cavalry of County Tipperary. 

Tipperary L. D. — May 1st, 1776 ; scarlet, faced black, white buttons, silver 
epaulettes. Col. Sir Cornelius Maude, Bart. 

Templemore L. D. — 1776; scarlet, faced black. Col. J. C. Carden. 

Slievardagh L. D. — Sept. 1778 ; scarlet, faced white, laced silver, white but- 
tons. Col. John Hamilton Lane. 

Clanwilliam Union. — July, 1779; scarlet, faced blue, laced silver, silver 
epaulettes, white jackets, faced blue. Col. JohuEail Clanwilliam. 

Lora Rangers. — 1779; scailet, faced green, yellow buttons, gold epaulettes. 
Col. Francis Mathew. 

Munster Corps. — Scarlet, faced blue, gold laced, gold epaulettes, buff waist- 
coat and breeches, yellow buttons, buff jackets. Col. .John L. Judkin. 

Clogheen Union. — Jan. 6th, 1781 ; scarlet, faced light blue, edged silver 
lace, white buttons, silver epaulettes, white jackets, edged red. Col. 
Cor. O'Callaghan. 

Ormond Union Cavalry. — Scarlet, faced white, silver epaulettes, white but- 
tons. Col. Henry Prittie. 

Newport Cavalry. — Scarlet, green collar and cuffs, yellow buttons, gold 
epaulettes. Col. Lord Jocelyn. 

Cavalry County Waterford. 

Lismore Blues. — July 1st, 1778 ; scarlet, faced blue, white buttons, silver 
epaulettes, white jackets edged blue. Capt. Com. Richard Musgrave. 

Curraghmore Rangers. — Nov, 1st, 1779; scarlet, faced white, silver epau- 
lettes, white buttons, white jackets, faced red. Col. Geo. Earl Tyrone. 

Waterford Union. — Green jackets, crimson velvet cuffs and collar, silver 
epaulettes, white buttons. Captain John Congreve, Jun. 
Infantry County Cork. 

Cork Artillery. — Blue, faced scarlet, yellow buttons, gold lace. Captain 
Richard Hare, Jun. 

Imokilly Blue Artillery. — Blue, faced scarlet. Col. R. Uniacke Fitzgerald. 

True Blue of Cork. — 1745 ; blue, laced silver. Col. R. Earl Shannon. 

Cork Boyne. — 1776; blue, faced blue, yellow buttons, gold epaulettes and 
lace. Col. John Bagwell. 

Mallow Boyne. — 1776 ; blue, edged buff, buff waistcoat and breeches, yel- 
low buttons. Col. Sir James Lawrence Cotter, Bt. 

Bandon Boyne. — 1777 ; blue, edged buff, yellow buttons, buff waistcoat and 
breeches, gold epaulettes. Ensign John Loane. 

Carberry Independents. — May 20th, 1777 ; scarlet, faced green, yellow but- 
tons. Captain Command. William Beecher. 

Aughrim of Cork. — 1777 ; scarlet, edged white. Col. Rich. Longfield. 

Loyal Newberry Musqueteers. — June, 1777 ; scarlet, faced black. Colonel 
Adam Newman. 

Cork Union. — March, 1776 ; scarlet, faced green, yellow buttons. Captain 
Commandant Henry Hickman. 

Culloden Volun eers of Cork. — March 23d, 1778 ; blue, faced scarlet, yellow 
buttons ; officers, gold epaulet' es. Colonel Benjamin Bousfield. 

Ross Carberry Volunteers. — Scarlet, faced blue. Colonel T. Hungerford. 

Passage Union.— March 28th, 1778; scarlet, faced deep green, white but- 
tons. Major Com. M ; chael Parker. 

Bandon Independents. — March 29th, 1778 ; scarlet, faced black, gold epau- 
lettes, yellow buttons, green jackets, faced black. Col. F. Bernard. 

Youghal Independent Blues. — 1778 ; blue, faced scarlet, edged white. 
Colonel Robert Uniacke. 

Youghal Rangers. — April 19th ; grass green, faced scarlet, gold lace and 
yellow buttons. Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant Meade Hobson. 



APPENDIX. 123 

Kinsale Volunteers. — Mav 1st, 1778. Colonel James Kearney. 

Hanover Society Clonakilty. — May 1st, 1778 ; scarlet, faced buff. Colonel 
Richard Hungerford. 

Kanturk Volunteers.— May 1st, 1778 ; scarlet, faced buff. Colonel John 
James Earl of Egmont. 

Hawke Union of Cove. — May 9th, 1778; blue, edged and lined buff, yel- 
low buttons, buff waistcoat and breeches. Captain Com. Win. Dickson. 

Black Water Rangers. — Colonel Richard A Id worth. 

Blarney Volunteers. — June 13th, 1778 ; scarlet, faced black, white buttons. 
Colonel George Jefferys. 

Newmarket Rangers. — Aug. 4, 1778; blue, faced blue. Col. B. Aldworth. 

Curriglass Volunteers. — April, 1779. Captain-Corn. Beard Harrison Beard. 

Castle Martyr Society. — May, 1779 ; scarlet, faced pale yellow. Captain 
William Hallaran. 

Inchigeelan Volunteers. — June 1st, 1779 ; blue, edged buff, buff waistcoat 
and breeches. Captain-Commandant Jasper Masters. 

Muskerry Volunteers. — Juue 19th, 1779; blue, edged buff, waistcoat and 
breeches. Captain-Commandant Thomas Barter. 

Doneraile Rangers. — July 12th, 1779; scarlet, faced green, yellow but- 
tons, gold epaulettes. Colonel St. Leger Lord Doneraile. 

Bantry Volunteers. — July 12th. 1779 ; scarlet, faced white. Col. H. White. 

Kilworth Volunteers. — July, 1779 ; scarlet, faced green, yellow buttons. 
Colonel Stephen Earl Mountcashel. 

Mallow Independents. — 1779 ; scarlet, faced green, yellow buttons. Col- 
onel John Longfield. 

Youghal Union Fuzileers. — 1779 ; scarlet, faced blue, edged white, white 
buttons. Major Commandant Thomas Green. 

Duhallow Volunteers. — October, 1779 ; Colonel Broderick Chinnery. 

Kinnelea and Kerrech Union. — December, 1779 ; blue, edged white, white 
buttons. Colonel Thomas Roberts. 

Charleville Volunteers. — Colonel Chidley Coote. 

Imokilly Blue Infantry. — Colonel Robert Uuiack Fitzgerald. 

Castlelyons Volunteers. — 

Infantry County Clare. 

Ennis Volunteers.— Sept. 12th, 1778 ; scarlet, faced black. Col. W. Blood. 

Inchiquin Fuzileers. — Feb. 12th, 1779; scarlet, faced light blue, silver 
buttons, braided wings and shoulder straps, hat cocked one side, with 
large plume of black feathers. Colonel Murrough Earl of Inchiquin. 

Kilrush. Union. — June 11th, 1780 ; scarlet, faced blue. Col. C. Vandeleur. 
Infantry County Kerry. 

Royal Tralee Volunteers. — January 4th, 1779; scarlet, faced deep blue, 
edged white, yellow buttons, gold lace epaulettes and wings. Colonel 
Sir Barry Denny, Baronet. 

Kerry Legion.— Jan., 1779 ; scarlet, faced black, edged white, white but- 
tons. Col. Arthur Blennerhasset. 

Killarney Foresters. — 1779; Captain Com. Thomas Galway. 

Gunsborough Union. — 1779 ; Col. George Gun. 

Miltown Fuzileers. — Major Com. Wm. Godfrey. 

Laune Rangers. — Col. Rowland Blennerhasset. 

Dromore Volunteers. — Col. John Mahony. 

Infantry County Limerick. 

Royal Glin Artillery.— June, 1779; blue, laced gold, gold epaulettes, scarlet 
cuffs and collar, yellow buttons, gold laced hats. Col. John Fitzgerald, 
Knight of Glin. 

Kilfinnau Foot.— 1776 ; scarlet, faced Pomona green. Col. Rt. Hon. S. Oliver. 



124 



APPENDIX. 



Loyal Limerick Volunteers.— Feb. 10th, 1776; scarlet, faced white, white 
buttons ; Col. Thomas Smyth. 

County Limerick Fensible Volunteers. — 1778 ; scarlet, faced light blue 
Col. John Thomas Walter. 

Castle Connel Rangers.— July 8th, 1778 ; scarlet, faced black, ed<*ed 
white, silver wings. Col. Robert Lord Musketry. 

Adare Volunteers.— Scarlet, faced green. Col. Sir Valentine Rich'd Quin. 

Rathkeale Volunteers.— July 1st, 1779 ; scarlet, faced black, silver wings ; 
officers full laced. Col. George Leake. 

German Fuzileers. — Col. James Darcey. 

True Blue Foot.— Col. Wm. Thomas Monsel. 

Limerick Independents.— October, 1781 ; scarlet, faced Pomona green, laced 
silver epaulettes. Lieut. Col. Com. John Smyth Peudergrast. 
Infantry County Tipperary. 

Tipperary Volunteers. — May 1st, 1776 ; scarlet, faced black, laced wings. 
Col. Sir Cornelius Maude, Baronet. 

Roscrea Blues. — Blue, faced blue, edged scarlet. Col. Lawrence Parsons. 

Onnond Union. — 1779 ; scarlet, faced white, silver epaulettes, and white 
buttons. Col. Henry Prittie. 

Ormond Independents. — March 23d, 1779 ; scarlet, faced black, silver 
epaulettes and wings. Col. Daniel Toler. 

Burrosakane Volunteers. — March 25th, 1779; Col. George Stoney. 

Clonmel Independents. — June 4th, 1779 ; scarlet, faced black, white but- 
tons. Col. Richard Moore. 

Cashel Volunteers.— June, 1779 ; scarlet, faced black. Col. R. Pennefather. 

Feathard Independents. — June, 1779 ; scarlet, faced black. Col. W. Barton. 

Nenagh Volunteers.— July 1st, 1779; black, faced red. Col. P. Holmes. 

Castle-Otway Volunteers. — Scarlet, faced green. Col. Thomas Otway. 

Thurles Union. — August, 1779 ; Col. Francis Mathew. 

Drum Division of Ditto. — August, 1779 ; scarlet, faced green, yellow but- 
tons. Col. Theobald Butler. 

Killcooly True Blues. — 1779, blue, edged buff, yellow buttons, buff waist- 
coat and breeches. Col. Sir Wm. Barker, Baronet. 

Newport Volunteers. — Scarlet, green collar, yel. buttons Col. Lord Jocelyn. 

Carrick Union. — Sept., 1779; blue, faced red. Col. Geo. Earl Tyrone. 

Caher Union. — Jan. 1, 1781; blue, faced red. Col. Hon. Pierce Butler. 

Waterford Artillery. — Blue, faced red, yellow buttons. Captain Jos. Paul. 
Infantry County Waterford. 

Waterford Independents, No. 1 and 6. — March, 1778 ; scarlet, faced black, 
white buttons, silver laced hats. Captain Com. Henry Alcock. Sec- 
ond Battalion, or No. 6. — Lieutenant Henry Hayden. 

Waterford Independents, No. 2. — March, 1778; scarlet, faced black, silver 
laced wings, white buttons. Captain Robert Shapland Carew. 

Waterford Independents, No. 3. — May, 1778 ; scarlet, faced green. Capt. 
Hanibal Wm. Dobbyn. 

Tallow Independent Blues. — August 1st, 1778 ; blue, edged white. Capt. 
Com. George Bowles. 

Royal Oaks, or Waterford Independents, No. 4 and 5. — Sept., 1779 ; scarlet, 
faced blue. Col. and Capt. Cornelius Bolton. 

Dungarvan Volunteers. — Nov. 1st, 1779; scarlet, faced black, silver laced 
wing, white buttons. Col. Rt. Hon. John Beresford. 

Cappoquin Volunteers.— 1779 ; scarlet, faced white. Col. J. Kean. 

Waterford Grenadiers, or No. 7 — June, 1782 ; scarlet, faced yellow, wings 
silver laced, white buttons. Capt. David Wilson. 

THE END. 



THE COMPLETE 

HISTORY OF IRELAND, 

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES. 



Beronir JBituston. 

FROM 

THE INVASION BY HENRY THE SECOND, IN 1 

TO 

THE TREATY OF LIMERICK, IN 1691. 



BY WILLIAM DOLBY; 

AIDED AND ASSISTED BY 

A COMMITTEE OF ADMIRERS OF IRISH ANTIQUITIES, 

NATIVES OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, 
WHO ARE NOW RESIDENTS OR CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



" The Irish nation has been as much traduced by the pen of History as it 
has been scourged by the rod of Power." — James Madison. 

This original and highly interesting compilation pre- 
sents the History of Ireland in a new light, — suitable for 
the American reader, and agreeable to the general stu- 
dents of history. 

The Third Division will continue the narrative, in the 
same impartial manner, from the Treaty of Limerick down 
to the present times. 

With a lively narrative, fine paper, good printing, and 
superb engravings, the publishers confidently announce thj; 
work as the best and most complete History of Ireland 
ever published. 



R. MARTIN & 

HK197-78 



■ 










V .v!^nL% CV 













V* • 



\ < -amir *»>* : 





\ 







^ lP^ 




ANCHESTER, 
INDIANA 









i 



pi 



